4yo with melanomas - would it stop you buying?

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fuze

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As title, really. 4 year old grey gelding, two melanomas. One under dock (removed by vet), another small one on shoulder. I understand they're fairly common in older greys, but what about younger ones? Would you be weary?
 
Yep I'd be wary, partly for the fact that if I wanted to sell the horse on it may be difficult and also what if more appeared, I could suddenly have an expensive problem on my hands with no insurance cover (assuming exclusions following vetting)
 
My 23 year old mare has huge, hideous weeping melanomas so I am right off them now. Wouldn't buy a horse that young with them, just because they are horrible and a worry and they are bad enough when they start appearing at 12 let alone 4.
 
Run , run away as fast as you can
Their is too many good ones out there , to buy into problems. I would turn it down it it was for free - sorry if its not what you wanted to hear because you've fallen in love with it.
 
Sorry, but no. I've had 2 greys who both had melanomas in their teens, but I would be very dubious about a 4 year old. Sadly, this is a form of cancer and can strike internally as well as the obvious external tumours.
 
I would be extremely wary and it would stop me buying. I am now on my third grey. One I had PTS age 24 with melanomas and one of my current lads (both are grey so expecting them) started to develop them about age 9. I do not want any more greys as a result of these two experiences not matter how much I love them.

A 4 year old with them is awfully young.....
 
A friend of mine has just bought an 8 year old with one under his dock, because she doesnt know anything about melanomas. Its a risk, would i risk it mmmm.
 
I am a grey collector.

It's a risk, yes and admittedly my first mare had them and was sadly pst in her early 20s because of how they had grown.

However, some of them turn into nothing, some of them grow very slowly. I think that if the horse is perfect then it should be more about the price reflecting the issue. Just because a horse has them so young doesn't mean that its doom and gloom. Unsightly yes, but if you monitor them rather than aggravate them they can be manageable.

My older mare has developed a few in the last couple of years. (she's 18). Currently pea sized under her tail. My shetland has some lumps on his face, and currently I haven't worked out if they are sarcoids or melanoma. He is young and I'm monitoring them and will be consulting the vet with regards to them, because he's only 5 and is showing promise in showing. My big gelding has a sarcoid on his inner thing that's been there for years. Never grown and never been an issue. You can't even see it, but it is there.
 
He has two outside... how many inside? They can spread inside too, or what about saddle or girth area? If you really love the horse, talk to the vet about them. I must say, I've had plenty of greys and only one of them had melanomas at 21and only one developed sarcoids at 15. I wouldnt touch this one because it's so young. So many grey four year old with out physical issues
 
It would put me off. On young horses they can be a lot more serious and be malignent. My friend has just had a 3yo pts because of them.

Out of interest, what colour is the horse behind the grey?
 
no, I've just lost an eleven year to melanoma-his first one showed up as a 6yo, I had him as a 4yo. There is no treatment for them, no evidence based medicine for a good outcome, the available treatment is hideously expensive and of no use whatsoever.

Derek Knottenbelt is the only one to say it how it is. At some point, melanomas will be malignant and those that rapidly grow in younger horses are almost always fatal.

don't put yourself through it, 4yo is awfully young to have them.
 
Thanks all, you've confirmed what was already niggling.

Gloi - he's a bay, under the grey. I don't know if that makes any difference?
 
fuze said:
Gloi - he's a bay, under the grey. I don't know if that makes any difference?
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Thanks. It was just to do with a theory that double dilutes with grey are more likely to get melanoma at a young age. That's not involved here though.
 
I wouldn't - insurance would not cover it and you don't know what other exclusions they may put on because of it. Also, heartbreaking if it gets worse in a young age.
 
my grey got his first and only (obvious) melanoma at 6. On his neck and within 6 months it had grown to the size of a football. He is now 16. He has a reasonable quality of life and after growing outwards to a considerable size it seems relatively stable in that it hasn't, as yet, grown internally to constrict his windpipe. However, he has simply been kept as a pet for the last 10 years. Riding would have been totally out of the question and if I hadn't had room for him as a pet then there would have only been one answer.
 
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