Malignant Lymphoma

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SillyMare

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One of my horses has been diagnosed with malignant lymphoma (following biopsy of some funny lumps on her skin). The vet has told me that the prognosis is bad - the skin form is the slowest moving, but given that she has had the lumps for about a year, we can expect to loose her within the next 12-18 months.

I am still in total shock about this - she is very fit and well, currently eventing (entered for Buckminster in 2 weeks actually). Now I don't know what to do!

I was so upset when I spoke to the vet - I failed to get any really useful information!

What will happen when she gets ill? How will I know it is progressing?

I don't want her to suffer at all - would rather get her PTS while she still feels OK. Can't bring myself to do it at the moment though.

Any advice / experience would be really appreciated.

Thanks
 
No advice I'm afraid, but I am so very sorry for you. I can remember taking our dog in to the vet for what I thought was a minor cough and being told it was his heart and that he didn't have much longer. I think you, or someone else if you think you may get too upset (as I would), need to speak to vet and find out exactly what is likely to happen. Once again I am really sorry for you and your horse, but she is lucky that she has such a caring owner.
 
So sorry, what a shock that must have been.
I don't know anything about horse lymphoma but my sister has had it for ten years and there are two human types, indolent which can be treated to knock it back down but will return again and again, and agressive which is hard to treat and often can't be stopped.
Some of the trouble may be that if it's like the human version the tumours appear in internal organs like the liver and stomach, so you may not even see when she gets worse.
I would play it by ear, the minute you suspect she isn't feeling 100 % turn her out and watch her, if it's something minor it will get better, if it's the cancer spreading well you then at least can decide.
I've never heard of it in the skin, without being funny, have you asked if he sent the info to a second opinion like Liverpool? Derek Knottenbelt specialises in cancer type lumps and I'm sure would giv eyou a proper explanation and prognosis.
When my sister got worse she had what appeared to be a chest infection but in reality it was tumours in he lungs, she also got exhausted with the slightest effort, I would think a horse would show it by lack of energy first, but that's purely a guess.
What a shame.....
 
One of the other horses on my yard had this about 6 months ago. A veteran grey that suddenly started to dramatically lose weight. He had funny lumps under the skin but his main problem was the weight loss. He was diagnosed with lymphoma and put on prednisolene (?sp, steroids). But even though the whole yard rallied to try to help him - lots of tiny, tasty feeds, extra vits and mins, top quality feed, etc - he went inexorably downhill. Then he had half a dozen episodes of colic and it was touch and go every time until in the end quiet pts was the only kind option.

I'd keep a lookout for unexplained weight loss, colicky attacks, off her food, generally unhappy. I think that it affects different horses differently so your ned may be fine for some time yet. Glad she's got such a caring mum, ready to help her if her life gets to be a burden xxx
 
Thanks - it is still all sinking in really.

She looks great at the moment - condition is perfect and she is her usual grumpy self around the yard.

I have left a message for the vet to call me so I can quiz him properly. Some of the information on the Internet says her prognosis depends on whether the skin lumps are the primary or the secondary cancer site.

Don't know how to find that out - hoping he will come and give her a full exam.

If she has tumours in her internal organs I guess that is it.
 
If the skin tumours are the primary cancers, it may be possible to tackle it. But if they're secondaries that means it's already spread. Hope vet is able to give you more info. Don't be afraid to ask for every detail - as hard as it is to accept it, you will know what you are dealing with and what to expect over the coming months/years x
 
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