DID MY HORSE HAVE CANCER?

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Denise5

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Thanks for all the kind posts received after having to put my lovely Ashan to sleep this week.

I am still puzzled as to what went wrong with him.

The first vet that came out in October for his sheath infection, took a swab and put him on an antibiotic (Trimsulph). He continued these antibiotics for 28 days because the infection didn't appear to be responding to treatment. Then four days after finishing these antibiotics, he developed a respiratory infection.

I wasn't happy with the first vet, so called another to come to see Ashan. Then after several vet visits and two short courses of antibiotics (Penicillin and Excenel), the coughing eased and his high respiration rate decreased. It took about two months to see improvement.

Through all this time he wasn't grazing in the field very much but he would eat his hard feed. A few weeks ago, he finally started grazing and I thought he was recovering. But then his condition started to drop off him drastically and often he wouldn't eat his hard feed. He got so skinny and developed severe diarrhoea in his final week.

I called the vet to put Ashan to sleep on Tuesday evening.

We are so puzzled and a lot of people say he must have had cancer and maybe he did. But I am blaming myself for allowing the first vet to give him a month of antibiotics as it may have caused the respiratory infection (affected his natural immune system). But then if we hadn't given him the antibiotics he would still suffer from the sheath infection (which never really cleared up). So I just don't know. The vet said we could do an autopsy but we didn't want to make a mess of him - just leave him as he is.

The sheath continued to be a problem through all of this. A pus discharge, smelly and about four days before he was put to sleep, it started to drip blood. He also couldn't extend to pee. I had to clean it every second day and it was always very mucky. He was so good to let me clean it - never once tried to kick.

I was just wondering what anyone makes of this. Does anyone have experience with sheath cancer? What were the symptoms? What about rapidly losing condition? Can this be a sign of cancer?
 
I'm sorry about your horse, I must have missed your earlier posts.

Sadly, because you didn't have a PM done you will always have to wonder what was the cause of his illnesses, there will never be an exact answer for you; sorry, it's never easy when it's still a mystery.
 
So sorry for you and your horse knew he was loved ,so many are not.
We had a horse that we spent a fortune on at the vets once and suddenly he lost weight and was pts.It turned out to be liver disease that was not diagnosed.I feel for you ,if only they could speak.
RIP Ashan
 
I'm sorry I didn't see any earlier posts.
We have seen several horses with cancer here over the years, and the overall symptoms appear to profuse diarrhorea, rapid weight loss and a general malaise..
The vet explained that in some cancers the lining of the stomach all thickens and they can't absorb any nutriments. The ones we had ate all their hard feed too, but it did no good.
Your horse may have had cancer, but without a PM there is no real way of telling.
Try not to beat yourself up about it, by what you have said you did your utmost to look after him and got more than one vet out, so he didn't suffer.
I do wonder if his immune system was weakened by a cancer and that allowed the other things to develop, either way, I very much doubt you could do anything more than you did to save him.
Stop torturing yourself and try and recall the good times you had with him...
 
The not absorbing nutrients makes sense and ties in with Ashan. I was careful to cover every mineral and vitamin possible with his feed, yet his condition just kept deteriorating. And this was a horse that was always in really good condition before he got sick - he was always a 'good doer'.
I kept thinking that if he could pick up condition again, he would regain his strength. I always held that hope over the months that he was sick.
As he was my friend for 18 years, it has been a real emotional rollercoaster with him appearing to get well some days, and down again others.
I would be interested to know, if the diarrhoea in the horses you mentioned, developed in the final stages.
 
I know how you feel. My mare has been ill now for 3 months. The money i have spent on her is now around 3k . I wont go into to details of her illness. But at the end of the day we have to do everything to help our best friends (which is what there are after caring for them for so long day in day out.) You did the best for your horse and gave it every chance to recover. Please understand you did your best. But when its time to say goodbye you know you did your very best to help.
Your horse was pts in such a dignified way. Some horse never get that chance. My thoughts are with you.
 
Sorry to hear of your loss.

My horse had internal melanomas and was PTS in 2001. He had large melanomas in his sheath and rectum and this was a fairly sure sign he had them internally as well. The bloods showed a very low level of protein in his blood, he also had terrible diarrhoea for the last week or two. I had the option of invasive tests or PTS. As he was permanently retired and because of the prevailing symptoms I opted for PTS. Was Ashan grey by any chance?
 
I'm sorry to hear about your horse...x

I lost my lovely cobbie through cancer over CHristmas just gone.. She had a PM done as the vets were quite baffled by her sudden illness and I wanted answers for them as much as anything as I felt this could help others in the future.. It was Equine Lymphosarcoma of the alimentary tract..

A month previous her lymph glands came up and were painful for a couple of days but otherwise she appeared fit and well. Throughout the next month she was grazing, eating up her hard feed etc and generally seemed herself apart from these swelling that were still there but were hard and no longer painful at all. The day before Christmas eve she was on own in the field and didn't finish up her feed. The vet was coming the next day to a friends horse so I booked him to look at mine. By that day she was refusing feed but still looked really well, shiny coat, no weight loss etc but she had oedema under her chest and her resperation was up and she had diarrohea. The vet mentioned heart failure at this point. She was treated for a virus in case it were strangles due to the glands up so had anti b's and painkillers. Vet came Christmas day, no change, passed a small poo. Boxing day she had fluid in her lungs..considered pneumonia and changed anti'b's. The following day her weight started dropping, she went blind and started headpressing within a couple of hours..she was taken to hospital and was put down that evening after having her liver flushed and her chest drained.
She seemed so well right up till 4 days before. The vet said her good condition and bodyweight served her well..

Sorry..not sure what the point of my post is really
blush.gif
except that my mare had diarrohea 3 days before she died of cancer.

Agree with the others though...you did what you could for your horse.x
 
No, the diarrohrea started weeks previously to them dying.
the first one was a long time ago and nothing we or the vet's could do stopped it, eventually he became very poor and the decision was taken to phts.
The next one was an in foal mare who after her first foal looked wonderful, but two thirds of the way through the second pregnancy got the squits and started to lose weight. we did averything, and in the end the vet said all we could do was try and keep her going long enough to have a live foal. She was shiny coated, eating loads of food but looked horribly thin. We kept her vit/minerals topped up with a good supplement from equine america, and she got to two weeks before her due date. the vet induced her (took ten mins!) and she was fine, fed the foal etc, but three weeks later with no warning apart from still having the runs she suddenly ate half her feed and collapsed on the floor. Huge bloody clots came out of her back end and the vet arrived to phts. he said they indicated breakdown of her stomach wall due to cancer.
We bottle fed then got a foster dam for the foal who went on to be a successful competition mare.
I hope this helps.
 
So sorry to hear of your loss you obviously done your utmost for this horse. As others have said it you will not know without a pm.
I do wonder whether the infection in his sheath had got in and spread, perhaps making him feel down and lowering his immune system, anyway don't beat yourself up for it, you were wise enough to get a second opinion and it sounds to me like you gave this horse your all and you should try to comfort yourself with that, there is no point beating yourself up!
 
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