Buy a horse with sarcoids

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Mic

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A friend of mine is considering buying a horse she has known for a number of years which has sarcoids. He has one on his face which was unsuccessfully treated a few years ago and came back. He also has one on his hind leg which he has recently knocked and caused to bleed. Should she walk away from this horse? What are the future implications?

Also, I'm guessing the presence of these sarcoids would reduce his value significantly - is that correct?

Thank you, really appreciate any advice. This is a tricky one as he is a lovely horse and she is very attached to him - I just don't want to see her to make a mistake because she doesn't know all the facts.
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my old fella had sarcoids for about 20 years, it never stopped me doing anything with him and i'm very grateful that i was lucky enough to have him sarcs and all


i know there is a chance that they can go bad, but that's life, no horse comes 100% guaranteed and only the person can decide if they are willing to take the risk of buying any horse.


FWIW if the horse ticked all the boxes and had a few sarcs i'd take the risk and buy
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Our cob had a sarcoid, it's not stopped him doing anything at all. We 'treated' it all wrong, but it's gone: fingers crossed our ministrations has not caused anything internal. There existance, from what I know, does reduce the market value of a horse. From my point of view, if I loved everything else about the horse and could get it for what I could afford/consdered reasonable, then I would buy one with sarcoids. Asspantio says, all horses get something of some sort as some time or other.

Othes might know of a reason why sarcoids should stop a sale. Try speaking to the vet and get his/her view.
 
I bought a horse with a very small sarcoid on his neck and one in his armpit. I was very worried but my vet said he was a great quality horse and lots of good horses were not bought due to sarcoids when it was totally unecessary. He said obviously some are worse than others and they are unpredictable but in my case it wasn't worth loosing a fantastic horse over. The one on his neck started to get bigger very slowly so I used bloodroot ointment on it and it has stopped the growth. The hair hasn't come back but it is not a problem.
 
I bought a horse from Germany and took my own vet over to vet him. He is a personal friend we aren't that rich lol! He passed a 5 star vetting despite havinga sarcoid in his armpit. During the summer it erupted and I had a problem with flies around it. Someone on here recommended Thuja cream which I applied once a day for approx 18 months. This year I had to clip the area! If you didnt know about it you wouldn''t know he had one.
 
my mare has them. I look at it as a purely cosmetic issue. It doesn't stop her being her or her ability to perform. I have been using newmarket cream and it seems to be working.
 
I agree with everything that's been said above but you do have to remember that sarcoids are a form of skin cancer. Some sarcoids that do really well may not have been sarcoids in the first place. Some sarcoids can be a real problem and can get very big and very nasty. You say this horse has one on it's face that has returned after treatment. To me, that alone would be a worry. Why did they have it treated? Is it in a place where a bridle would rub against it? Because if so, it might eventually get to the point where NO bridle could be put on the horse. My advice would be to visit the Everything You Need to Know About Sarcoids site that Prof Knottenbelt of Liverpool University has set up. It's brilliant. He advises that the only predictable thing about sarcoids is that they are unpredictable.
 
I boy developed a sarcoid on his face about an inch and a half from his eye. It started as a rub from his fly mask ( which apparently rubs can start a sarcoid somehow but cant remember how or why) anyway it started looking like a wart and then grew a little with a bald patch around it about the size of a 50p piece. In the end I treated it with some horrible but fantastic cream from Prof Knottenbelt of Liverpool University and you wouldnt have a clue he ever had one. He is grey so prone to things like this but there is nothing there, not even a mark. I also knew a horse who had loads of them and some of them huge between his back legs and I saw him in a lesson once and he was one of the best moving horses I have seen in a while. He had them removed in the end as he used to sweat a lot in this area which didnt help but within reason it definitly wouldnt stop me buying a horse with a sarcoid.
 
I've had horses with sarcoids and they wouldn't put me off a horse. One filly arrived with a sarcoid probably the size of a tennis ball between her front legs. The vet "tied it off" and as it dropped I can only describe it as looking like a scrotum! It dropped off one day in the field (no I didn't go looking for it!) and we just had to hibiscrub and fly cream the area until it was totally healed. It left a very small scar and there has been no other sarcoids or regrowth so far - 4 years on.
 
Read the Profs definitive guide. Like I asid, he advises that the only thing predictable about sarcoids is that they are unpredictable. You could take a chance and the ned would never have so much as a twinge from it. Or you could be facing months of distressing and uncertain treatment with an unrideable horse in the meantime. I would guess that if we all had a much loved ned that DEVELOPED a sarcoid, we'd carry on loving our ned and do the best we could for them. But to buy one with an uncertain health problem seems madness. You might instantly find that your ned was excluded for a range of veterinary problems. Why injury sites and rubs can cause sarcoids to develop is because flies are implicated in carrying a virus as they happily feast on the goo exuded by the wound site. Sarcoids that get big enough to bleed badly from a knock can be a management nightmare as well as an ethical one. You might find hostile looks if you continued to ride a horse with a massive weeping sarcoid and you might be banned/eliminated at shows for injured/not sound ned.

There's loads of non-sarcoid horses out there so why buy a known problem??? Again, do read the website - it is enormously helpful and answers a lot of questions. x
 
A weeping or bleeding sacroid can also mean flies carry the virus to another animal nearby, to the lsightest skin scratch.
So not welcome on some yards unless treated and got rid off
Allow at least £500 for a course of treatement, either the cream or the lastest laser treatment,
 
My horse has several sarcoids, mostly nodular & a couple of verrucoid.
She had a few lumps when I bought her & asked for them to be looed at during vetting. Was told they were not sarcoids!
Most have not caused a problem in the 4.5 years I have had her but this year she grew 3 new ones on her girth line & under her saddle which were treated 3 weeks ago with Liverpool Cream. Time will tell whether that has cleared them. This morning she had 2 between her back legs that have grown to the size of marbles in a few weeks banded & injected with Liverpool Cream.
Would I buy her if I had my time again? I honestly don't know, much as I love her. If I did I would make sure I had money put away to cover treatment as & when awkward ones cropped up. Horse is likely to have an exclusion for all skin conditions.
 
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