cancer in horses

[jacquityler]

has any one had the experance of cancer in their horse
my horse has had a smooth lump in his mouth which has pushed his tooth (bottom) into his mouth my vet has filled it level with the rest of his teeth only for it to move again.. he did a byopsi a few months ago it came back clear now he is very concerend that it is cancer and is going to do another. has any one had this sort of thing and what was the out come. he does not seem to have any discomfort. it certainly dosnt stop him from eating!!!!

 

[Nailed]

I used to look after a mare who had lukemia. We put her on red cell iron supplement and alfalfa to help with her anemia, and booked a date two weeks after the discovery to have her PTS. Her last two weeks of her life she went to some parties, cantered and galloped throught the wood s and grazed int he best fields with her freinds. Enjoyed her self. and died with dignity.

Not experienced anything like yours.
Sorry
lou x

 

[Tierra]

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in my teens i liveried at a place that also had a riding school attached to it. There was a cob mare there called Maggie who developed some kind of peculiar skin allergy.

It looked, initially, like a bad mite infestation i guess.. bald patches appearing that looked raw.

The mare stopped being used in the school and the vets came out several times and were largely baffled by her, however her condition was deteriorating quite rapidly and she looked, to be blunt, like an extremely bad neglect case.

I cant remember the absolute details as I was only 14 at the time but she was diagnosed with some form of aggressive skin cancer. A friend of mine took her on loan and spent a lot of time trying to deal with the open sores on her with the diagnostics were being carried out, but ultimately, she was PTS quite fast.

Thats the only real direct contact Ive had with cancer in horses aside from a bay mare i knew that developed a melanoma on her skin. The owner put off having it examined (because in greys at least, they're largely harmless), despite the advice from numerous other people. I lost touch with her for various reasons, but i did hear through the grapevine that she was PTS some months later.

You're obviously going the correct way with getting a biopsy done as thats the only thing that can tell you for sure whats happening.

 

[henryhorn]

We have had two horses which had cancer of the stomach wall, both lost massive amounts of weight, had profuse diaorrhea and had to be pts.
Another many years ago had cancer of the leg, again, it wasn't curable.
I would think what the vet has done up to now is about the limit you can do, giving a horse chemo wouldn't really be very nice for it, and horrendously expensive.
If your horse is insured they will probably pay for investigative treatment at one of the veterinary hospitals, but few will be specialists in this as it is pretty rare.
I wish I could say more positive things to you, but my experience of cancer in horses has been bad news...
The best of luck, I hope they can do something..it does sound to be slow growing whatever it is, so you may yet have years with the horse.

 

[Jackie_L]

My mare has cancer. She was diagnosed about 3.5 years ago. She had some little lumps on the inside of her back leg. My vet checked them out when vaccinating her and initially said that they felt like something, like a thorn, was in her leg and not to worry too much unless it got worse.

About 2 weeks after her vaccs the lumps grew to about the size of golf balls. The vets was recalled and decided that he needed to do a biopsy and as the lumps were in an arkward place he would operate and remove the whole lump.

We checked her all over and found 6 more very small lumps and it was agreed that while under anesthetic they would all be removed.

The vet was positive and said that in the 10 years he had been inpractice he had never had bad results with lumps.

The results came back and it was cancer (cant remember the exact name of the one she's got but it is fairly rare). A few months later she had 8 more lumps removed and her ovaries scanned incase of any tumours there (thank god there wasn't). My vet then suggested not vaccinating her as, although no scientific proof, it was strange they grew so rapidly after the vacc.

She has not had a vaccination since and was lump free until last month when i found 2 very small lumps one on her shoulder and one on her hind quarters.

She is very well and to look at her you would not know that there is anything wrong. She is spoilt rotten and i love her to bits and hopefully she will have alot of life left in her for us both to enjoy.

Good luck with your horse i hope you have as happy an outcome as me.

 

[herbert]

Had a horse in my care who had cancer of the willie. When he wee'd it was like watching a shower head. The vets amputated his willie and re routed him so that he wee'd the same as a mare. Took him a while to get the hang of it. Sadly after 18 months the cancer returned this time in his stomach and he was pts.

 

[Orangehorse]

I knew of a gelding that had a similar thing. He had an operation and lasted quite a long time, longer than everyone was expecting.

I also knew a mare that had a small lump removed from her eye when she was about 12, under a local. When she was 14 she was sent to stud and after she foaled she came back and there was a lump in her throat. It kept growing, and she had a foal at foot and was in foal again. There wasn't any treatment that the vet could do, but he said he hoped that she would keep going long enough to have the foal. Sadly at Christmas time she started to have trouble breathing - she had to keep her neck at an angle to be able to breathe, so she was PTS before it started to make her distressed.

I have a grey pony that has a huge growing lump on his head, but again the vet said they don't like to touch it. It is not causing him any trouble, although the vet also said that if he has one lump he probably has another somewhere, about 80% of greys have some sort of lump, etc. If it is not visible outside it is probably inside.

 

[Theresa_F]

Cairo has suffered from eye cancer since 7. He had one eye removed when he was 11 as it was kinder than to keep having it operated on. He also has had chemo which knocked the stuffing out of him for a long time and does age them. We were advised to think of him 3 years old than he actually is.

Now we have come a long way and the last two times, Cairo had surgery under a general to remove the growth and then radiotherapy. Had this treatment been available earlier, he would probably still have both eyes. Unfortunately he gets the cancer back in the eye about every three years.

This time we had surgery and radiotherapy again, but he is now 21 and if and when it occurs again, we will probably have it cut back as best we can under a local and radiotherapy under a local if it will delay regrowth.

The only thing to bear in mind is the cost - between £2,000 and £3,000 which we gladly pay as he is worth his weight in gold to us.

This cancer will not kill him, he will die of old age first even if we were to leave it, but it would eventually be very comfortable for him have a large growth on the eyeball.

 

[ISHmad]

My first pony died of cancer of the heart, which is really rare in horses apparently.

 

[Twigben]

My boy had a fibrosarcoma on his belly (outside not inside) he had standing surgery to remove it - the vets thought it was a sarcoid but on tests at the labs it wasnt, it was a tumour. It came back after removal and they use a cream on it and it (eventually) went but i dont know if it had spread unfortunately i lost him to something else a few weeks back so i dont know if it really had gone or was in abayance!?