Getty Images / Wolfgang Kaehler
Do you know that extremely uncomfortable feeling you get when a loose lash gets stuck in your eye? You find yourself sitting there, subconsciously rubbing it, and the whole world only has to stop for a minute because it is very disturbing.
Well, imagine that, but instead of hands to retrieve loose hair, you have hooves. And it’s not just a hair, it’s a lot of them.
A report on a “sick deer” by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency produced a mixture of awe, disgust and chills, thanks to a Tennessee deer found with corneal dermoids – also known as hairy eyes.
The white-tailed deer was found bleeding and disoriented in Farragut, a eastern Tennessee suburb of Knoxville, in late August 2020. Animal control was forced to dispatch the deer, but sent its head for analysis to the Southeastern Cooperative unit Wildlife Disease Study (SCWDS) at the University of Georgia veterinary school.
Although the deer was posthumously discovered with epizootic hemorrhagic disease – an infectious and often fatal virus that afflicts white-tailed deer – another notable aspect was discovered: the deer ‘s corneas were almost completely covered with locks of hair.
Written by Dr. Nicole Nemeth and research technician Michelle Willis, the official SCWDS report stated: “Corneal dermoids, as in the case of this deer, usually contain elements of normal skin, including hair follicles, sweat glands, collagen and fat. The masses are usually benign (non-invasive) and congenital, probably resulting from a defect in embryonic development. “
Therefore, the deer is likely to have had these corneal dermoids for quite some time, progressively getting worse until their vision is almost completely obscured.
According to Sterling Daniels of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, “Maybe I could tell the day from the dark, but I don’t think I would be able to see where it is going. I would compare that to covering my eyes with a towel. day at night, but that’s all. “
It is only the second deer to be documented with corneal dermoids.