Mast cell tumour

[Becc]

My horse has just had a biopsy of a skin lump and the histology has come back as a mast cell tumour. Apparently these are quite rare in horses. My vet is looking in to what options there are to treat it, but I just wondered if anyone has had a horse with one and what treatment they ended up having.

 

[HeyMich]

My horse has just had a biopsy of a skin lump and the histology has come back as a mast cell tumour. Apparently these are quite rare in horses. My vet is looking in to what options there are to treat it, but I just wondered if anyone has had a horse with one and what treatment they ended up having.

Sorry, no. But my dog had one (much more common in dogs I think) and she's recovered fully, with no recurrences.

Hope your horse has it removed safely and recovers well.

 

[Becc]

Thanks HeyMich. My vet said he’s only ever seen them in dogs before and are much more common. Glad yours has recovered from it.

 

[winnie]

Yes, I had a pony who developed a mast cell tumour in her nostril. As you say, very rare in horses. We were referred to Oakham Veterinary hospital and they weighted up whether it could be surgically removed. They thought it could but because of the postion of the tumour and other problems the pony had, we decided not to go down that route and sadly had her pts. I think it very much depends on the location of the tumour. I hope you have a better outcome than we did.

 

[electric_circus]

Yes - was removed 3 years ago and the horse is absolutely fine. You wouldn’t even know it had been there, the surgery site healed beautifully.

 

[Bellaboo18]

Sorry no help but my dog has got one and we've been advised to leave it at the moment.

 

[Parrotperson]

Sorry no help but my dog has got one and we've been advised to leave it at the moment.

may I ask why they said to leave it for now? Have you had a biopsy?

Im another one with no experience of mast cell tumours on horses but my dog had two in her life, in different places. Both times my vet said operate asap as they can spread internally in dogs really quickly.

Becc both times dog recovered well and although it did get her in the end (another tumour internally thought to be a mast cell) as she was 16 nearly 17 it was managed conservatively until we Pts'd . But she had a long and happy life.

 

[Bellaboo18]

may I ask why they said to leave it for now? Have you had a biopsy?

Im another one with no experience of mast cell tumours on horses but my dog had two in her life, in different places. Both times my vet said operate asap as they can spread internally in dogs really quickly.

Becc both times dog recovered well and although it did get her in the end (another tumour internally thought to be a mast cell) as she was 16 nearly 17 it was managed conservatively until we Pts'd . But she had a long and happy life.

Of course.
She had a fine needle aspiration which showed it was a MCT.
The lump is on a back leg. The vet said it's not pronounced enough to know where to make the incision so he'd have to take a large area at the moment so he'd advise monitoring. She's been back twice and so far it's staying the same. She's got three legs (from previous ill treatment not cancer) which has to be a big consideration when operating on one of the remaining three.
She's 10 and very healthy.
The risk in removing it is if any gets left behind it can be aggravated.
I think our circumstances (3 legs) are obviously unusual.

 

[Parrotperson]

thanks yes I can see the problem. fingers crossed then. ?

 

[Gipsy180605]

Hi so I appreciate this thread is old now but I wanted to give my experience with mast cell tumours in my pony for anyone that may find this helpful in the future. My pony is a cob x Arab. I’ve had her since she was 8 and she’s now 25. When she was about 14 over the course of two summers she developed multiple tumours that were biopsied and found to be mast cell tumours. My vet was extremely experienced but as they are so rare in horses he had never seen them. Liverpool university gave guidance and the tumours that were ulcerating were removed over the course of about a year. As these tumours were only developing in the summer months the vet decided to allergy test my girl and she is extremely allergic to the summer grasses. As mast cell tumours are balls of histimine the vet thought some immunotherapy couldn’t hurt. Well, two rounds later and we didn’t hear a peep out of the tumours or any new ones until she was 24. In the last year they have started to develop again and some are getting a little nasty and causing infections. She is no longer eligible for surgery due to the location of the tumours (wrapped around tendons etc) and her age. Currently she is well as they sit dormant in the winter but I strongly believe we will need to have this pony pts due to them in the future. But hey my girl has lived more than 10 years with them so don’t be too scared of the diagnosis