Melanoma progression, any advice?

[rmasterson]

My 19 year old grey ISH has fairly advanced (I think) melanoma. I've asked my Vet about the rate of progression and his prognosis for the future but he is reluctant to say. He says once it is in the head it is not a good sign. The horse has had a large squishy swelling on the side of his head (beneath the ear and above the end of the jaw bone) for quite some time now (18 months approx). He also has lumps in the offside girth area and on his neck along his spinal cord. Plenty under the tail too. So that sounds really bad, right? On the positive side, he is carrying lots of condition, eats very well and is in great form enjoying his weekly hacks. He also defecates normally. I'm looking to hear other people's experiences in similar situations. Thanks!

 

[ihatework]

In this sort of situation I think you just have to be prepared and pragmatic. While your horse is bright, happy and enjoying life then crack on and treasure him and try not to dwell on/overanalyse the inevitable.

The minute the status quo changes I think you need to be strong enough to take quick and decisive decisions.

 

[Red-1]

I would act with caution. My first pony had melanomas under his tail for years. Then one popped out between 2 ribs. Shortly after, he started to be breathless and was then PTS. He was riddled on the inside. So, I would maybe give lighter work if he has then in various sites as he probably has many internal ones too.

 

[Bernster]

Oh lawks, now that’s got me worried. My boy is 9 and only has them (ie visible) on his head (parotid gland area). Vets hasn’t said it’s more or less risky although the prognosis is pretty vague. They don’t appear to bother him though. They do seem to have growth spurts which coincide with when his vaccine booster comes due although I don’t know if that’s just confirmation bias on my part. He gets the melanoma vaccine - mixed research as to whether it works though but it’s the only treatment there seems to be for this location anyway (can’t be removed surgically).

 

[ycbm]

Please be careful riding and think about retirement. The last one I knew with melanoma on the head like yours started to fit with a rider on board and nearly caused a serious accident. She was PTS a couple of weeks later after a number of fits.

I'm really sorry this won't be what you want to hear, but I would PTS now rather than watch a horse fitting. I've seen one of mine do it and I never want to see it again.

ETA Bernster I'm sorry this will worry you when yours is so young 😳

.

 

[Bernster]

Yes ycbm it does - ive not heard about that before and in lots of cases they don’t seem to be an issue until they are much older. I suppose it’s a case of managing as best as you can and see what fate may bring. He shows no signs of it bothering him and he works fabulously, so although it’s not something I’d chose to have in a horse, ofc, he’s a superstar and I don’t regret buying him (before i knew about the risks of it in greys!).

 

[rmasterson]

Thanks for your posts. I was asking because I don’t know what to expect and would like to know what to keep an eye for. The Vet told me that a lack of coordination would often be the first sign but I’ve never heard of the fitting😱 He is pretty much retired but I will probably make that official now. I’ll do the right thing when the time comes but he’s happy for now & my get can usually be on site within an hour.

 

[scats]

I had a mare who was riddled with melanoma. By the age of 18 she had two on her head, one very large, one on her side, her girth, in her mouth, under her jaw, around her dock...

We lost her at the age of 27 to liver disease. The head melanoma grew pretty large (I can get pics if you want) but it never caused her a problem.

 

[Fragglerock]

My horse had some small ones on his tail when I bought him. I had him 17 years. One on his tail abscessed a couple of times and I had to have him PTS due to an internal tumour in his pelvis. He was 25.

 

[paddy555]

My 19 year old grey ISH has fairly advanced (I think) melanoma. I've asked my Vet about the rate of progression and his prognosis for the future but he is reluctant to say. He says once it is in the head it is not a good sign. The horse has had a large squishy swelling on the side of his head (beneath the ear and above the end of the jaw bone) for quite some time now (18 months approx). He also has lumps in the offside girth area and on his neck along his spinal cord. Plenty under the tail too. So that sounds really bad, right? On the positive side, he is carrying lots of condition, eats very well and is in great form enjoying his weekly hacks. He also defecates normally. I'm looking to hear other people's experiences in similar situations. Thanks!

we had exactly that (the head one) the horse was 6. He was unrideable for other reasons so it wasn't a problem there. It grew pretty rapidly until it was the size of a football. The horse didn't appear to notice. The vet's came and went and viewed in wonder as it grew. He eat well, breathed well, galloped around the field well so we let him get on with it. He lasted about 8 years with it before he was PTS with colic. No idea if the colic was linked to another melanoma. He got very serious gaseous colic and was PTS within a couple of hours. This was a grey. We just presumed it was growing outward rather than inward where it could do damage.
There is absolutely nothing you can do, just treat the horse normally and let him get on with life. If ours was anything to go by it could go on for a long time and may end up PTS in due course of something unrelated in the way old horses do. It was alarming as it grew and grew but he coped very well

 

[Orangehorse]

I had a pony with a growth on his head. It started out pretty small and ended up as big as a cauliflower just below his ear over about 6/7 years. The vets always used to say "that's interesting."

I expected him to die from colic from an internal growth, but over the course of a summer I could see that he didn't look as well as he should and found he had very high cushings, so vet and I decided to PTS as he was unwell anyway. She said that 80% of grey horses die of melanoma. Pretty depressing and sorry OP, but mine didn't actually die of it in the end.

 

[ycbm]

Yes ycbm it does - ive not heard about that before and in lots of cases they don’t seem to be an issue until they are much older. I suppose it’s a case of managing as best as you can and see what fate may bring. He shows no signs of it bothering him and he works fabulously, so although it’s not something I’d chose to have in a horse, ofc, he’s a superstar and I don’t regret buying him (before i knew about the risks of it in greys!).

Most of them are fine with the head lumps and at the age he is I don't see what else you can do. I hope he goes on trouble free for many years.

.

 

[racebuddy]

Mine has numerous surgeries on rectal melamomas / girth / mouth / mane : also has them in his gutteral pouch also amd sheath area
He has regualr checks every 3/6 months , if u pm me i am on Facebook can send u some pics xxxx

 

[Sasana Skye]

Another owner of a horse riddled with melanomas here. My grey mare is 15 and has large melanomas on her guttural pouch area (which seem to have stopped/slowed growth in the past couple of years), a couple under her tail and rectum and one on her girth area. She's very much still full of life and enjoying work, still jumping well and is actually the best she's been in years.
She fractured her skull last August in two places so I had to have a CT scan to check for damage on her brain, I was expecting her brain to be full of melanoma but there was nothing there.
No pain associated with girthing either and vet told me to just use a comfortable well padded girth and get on with life so that's what we're doing.
I think one day the melanomas might start to cause us issues that are irreversible and then she will sadly be pts. I've had her over 10 years and know everything about her so I'd hope to notice the little changes early.
Every little stumble now that's she's getting on a bit and my heart stops thinking she's losing her co-ordination but it's always been attributed to something else, particularly as I've just taken her barefoot. I have 1000's of pictures taken over time including her CT results if anybody wants to see.

For reassurance I always remember what my vets told me and that is that most grey horses die with melanomas not from them.

 

[still standing]

Bernster, I kept my horse at livery in a RS yard many years ago and one of their horses (grey ID mare) had a melanoma just as you describe, from quite a young age. Horse was totally fine for the 10 years I was there, popular horse and worked hard in the school and outdoor rides and I heard she was still working in the RS for long after I left the yard. The melanoma grew of course and was pretty big latterly but tack was carefully fitted and it never seemed to bother her though I believe it ultimately was the reason she was PTS - she must have been in her late teens or twenties by then.

 

[Equi]

My first pony had a lot of them around the anus and a few on his sheath. He was a fab little bub for about a year (the vet reckoned he was late 20s) but when he wasn't up to work anymore and retired he started to fail fast then he over the course of about a week or two started swaying his back end and had to be pts. Should have been a lot sooner but i was 12.

 

[Bernster]

Thx SS, always nice to read some slightly more positive stories too.

 

[rmasterson]

Really interesting reading, thanks for all the replies. I think I’m prob being over cautious considering retiring him so soon. He’s in very very light work. No jumping & a weekly hack at most. He lives out & is in rude condition. Lovely to think I might have him for several more years, I was worried it might be months.

 

[racebuddy]

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