Has anyone bought a horse with sarcoids?

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Hedge_pig

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I've noticed over the past few days a few posts popping up stating that the poster would never buy a horse with sarcoids, I just wondered how many people had knowingly bought a horse with them and, if you don't mind saying, what you paid for them?

It's not a purely academic question, I've found a horse who is absolutely perfect for what I want him for with a wonderful temperment, but he has one small sarcoid on his right hind which has already been treated once but returned.

I'm trying not to let my heart rule my head, but I don't want to write him off completely as he's so perfect in every other way. Considering the number of horses with sarcoids out there I thought there must be people willing to buy them, so I'd love to hear your stories, successful or otherwise.
 
I do buy horses with sarcoids depending on the type and location and always with the vets advice.
I give them the best most modern treatment aviable and take around £1500 to £2000 off the value I would put on the horse if it had no sarciods .
I should say though I am the end user of my horses so I don't have to worry about selling them.
 
I wouldn't- my horse has had 1 for the last 2 or 3 years, we've left it alone on vets advice, it's gradually growing & recently he's started developing them on his sheath which is attracting the flies. If you'd asked me a year ago I'd have said yes I would because the original sarcoid had shown no signs of change & there weren't any others so if a horse had got a small sarcoid that hadn't changed much I wouldn't have been bothered, now it would put me off completely.
If the sarcoid has been removed & come back I'm afraid I would walk away - insurance won't cover it so you could need deep pockets for future treatments & if one grows where the tack goes, what do you do with an otherwise sound horse that can't be ridden as tack would rub and might only be 10 years old (for example)
But it's each to their own, it probably wouldn't bother others so much.
 
Goldenstar said:
H-P what type of sarcoid does the horse have ?
Click to expand...

I'm afraid I don't know the exact terms but it's a nobbly one rather than a flat one, a bit bigger than a 1p piece. Horse was clearly uncomfortable with me touching it but I don't know what treatment he had previously so it could be remembered pain. He is sound and as far as I'm aware always has been. He is 6, so potentially a long life of complications ahead.
 
Yes I have - in late autumn last year. He has an occult (flat) sarcoid on the side of his face which is about the size of two 50p pieces. I bought him because he was a good price and I wanted something to have fun with - hacking and low-level competition - and I liked him a lot. The vet had a look at the vetting and felt that it wouldn't be rapid growing and, as I didn't intend to insure him (and haven't) I didn't have to worry about an exclusion.
As it was quite raised and rough, I tried the toothpaste method, having read about it on here. It took all the surface scaliness off and we now have a smooth surface with one raised nodule. Its location means that cheekpieces don't touch it but I do sometimes ride without a noseband, particularly if he's likely to sweat, and I have covered the brass joining ring on his headcollar noseband with sheepskin. Neither noseband has been a problem - it's just me being cautious.
He isn't bothered by it at all and has only caught it twice in the time I've had him, resulting in a tiny scab each time.
As he has a pink nose, I have been putting sun block on that and done the sarcoid at the same time and that also seems to have reduced it.
All that said, I would have been far more cautious about purchase if he had been a high price, I wanted to do serious competition or the vet had been more concerned. As it is, it worries me in a low level way but I have "parked" it as an issue unless/until something changes. I'm still very pleased with him, although at the moment he is being a kn*b but only because he hasn't worked for a fortnight thanks to an abscess (hoof not face!)
My old lad used to get the nodule type sarcoids on his belly and they always seemed to drop off after a while of their own accord and, again, I was lucky that they were not affected by tack or rugs.
I would advise caution but it very much depends what you want to do with him and how deep your pockets are. Sorry for the essay!
 
How was it treated ?
My experiance is that to take on sarcoids you need to be persistent and to be able to afford to be persistent.
I have never had a disaster and lost a horse to them or had its working life stopped by them but you would need to be prepared for that to happen .
Fatty an ID came to me with nodular sarcoids he had a serious health issue as well and was given to me .
He's just had his fourth lot of treatment, we laser them then use an anti viral cream at first and dermasol to help get rid of thedead tissue and filta bac as a barrier he had two done three weeks ago and will return to work tomorrow .
It does cost money but he's a fantasic horse who carrys my OH safely I could not but a value on what he's worth to us .
As soon as they appear I apply high floride tooth paste which they don't like then they get lasered as soon as the vets have the machine in to do a few horses at once.
One of the sarcoids the vet burned off last time was a wasp bite oops poor fatty extra hole, she rang me and said I've found a second one shall I do it I said yes never thought of the wasp bite .
Bad mummy lesson learned don't send him in without staying.
I think it comes down to money can you afford to persit in treating and could you take the heartbreak if it goes wrong , our practice has a vet who specialises in sarcoids so it's easy for me acess good treatment and I think that's something you should consider as well.
 
I did, it was my first horse and while I knew about sarcoids ( was around horses in many guises before buying my own) I didnt know much about buying horses so didnt negotiate because of it however I had them treated ( one big one inner thigh and several small ones around sheath ) with the liverpool cream and they went away and never caused us any more trouble but I bought him with the money to treat them in place and knowing there were no guarentees, but he was the perfect horse otherwise, and I was of the mindset that anything could happen tomorrow anyway with horses.
 
Mine had a suspected sarcoid when I bought him; it was a small patch of hairless skin that was slightly different to the rest of his skin. Wasn't a sarcoid at the time but vet basically said she couldn't guarantee it hadn't been one, or wouldn't become one. About 2 months later, it did become one. It changed rapidly, the skin got scaly and thick. We treated it with Liverpool Cream, it swelled up, scabbed over and peeled off about 2 months later. Since been checked and vet is happy with it. He just has a little scar now. Didn't cost much to treat.

He has another couple of patches of slightly suspicious skin that I'm keeping an eye on. It seems that the heat/flies sets them off in my horse so I just make sure he has plenty of fly cream/spray on and am seeing what happens with the other potential ones. We did send pics of those to Liverpool last year but they said they didn't warrant treatment yet and to just wait to see how(if) they developed.

Other than that, horse is pretty much everything I could have wanted. Little jumping machine, bold as anything XC, nice paces and does a decent DR test, hacks out alone, could put a child on him to hunt, tries his heart out and is a thoroughly nice person so it was worth it.
 
i bought a horse a year ago that was just what i wanted, the owner told me she had a wart on her elbow, which i looked at and my vet also looked at and said it seemed normal and not to worry..
2 months later it got a lot bigger and three more developed plus another one on her chest..
they were getting bigger and bigger so i got the vet in again and he said they were sarcoids!!....i already had a big vets bill so decided to look up other treatments and i came across the toothpaste method..
i payed 1 euro for a tube of crest in my local shop and my mare only has one sarcoid left now...i rub it on each day..one of the sarcoids was massive and i couldn't ride her it was so bad....its now completely gone..it just fell off , it left a hole that i then treated like a wound with wound powder
the one that is left is different from the others, it is covered in hair!. the others were more raw looking..toothpaste has worked for me anyway
 
Lost my 10 page essay so will just quickly say yes!!!, had him on lwvtb appeared 4 weeks in, he is only a baby(5) and been told i should have sent him back, he is my daughter's best friend ,they 'fitted' from day 1,he is a well loved yard favorite and yo who gives them lessons love him, a total charactor who i can trust 110% to look after her out hacking and test her and make her work in the arena, they compete she loves him with all her heart and he will stay with us forever, they are learning together and most importantly enjoying each other, i probably would have flicked pass his advert if i had known about the sarcoid, regardless am so glad i did not know!! xx
 
My sister did, paid £350 for her. She did have one really nasty on on her inner thigh that was open and 2 small ones around it. Shes a cracking mare and worth every penny. Real bargain, but I wouldn't pay over 1500 for a horse with them. Too risky imo
 
i personally wouldnt. i keep my horses for life so am willing to pay a bit more and as such i dont accept any unsoundness or illness. its usually more expensive in the long run. ive also learnt however good a horse may seem there is always another good one tomorrow- if you wait a bit youll find the next one which doesnt have sarcoid, melanoma, etc etc
 
I had a horse vetted and found a sarcoid. Seller wanted £3,000 for the horse and would only knock off £200 due to the sarcoid. In the end I decided to walk away as ultimately there are plenty of healthy horses out there without having to take on one with known health issues, not to mention the problems with insurance exclusions.
 
I did without knowing she had sarcoidosis.

Price did not come into it as she was given to me to wipe out a debt, that would not be paid otherwise.

3 sarcoids all frozen off, none have come back. No more grown. I would be cautious though, can see that they could be an issue.
 
I have just recently sold a horse who had a lot of sarcoids, I was up front about them with the buyer and she liked him enough any way to take the chance. I did have to price him quite low though but he only spent 10 days on the market before he sold!

However, due to my experienced with the above horse I would never buy another horse that had sarcoids. I even excluded greys in my search criteria in case of melanomas, thats how fed up i was with dealing with skin issues.
 
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