Melanomas on a grey pony

TJ&Ozzie

TJ&Ozzie

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My 24 year old grey pony has had a couple of lumps in his tail for a number of years now. However recently a lot more have come up, he now has approx 10 or 12 and some are quite big. He was holding his tail up this evening and there is one right where his tail starts that is sore. He is fine in himself, eating and not poorly.

I am aware that greys get melanomas and that he is an old boy but is there anything I can do for him to make them more comfortable?
 
I have a horse here who has them and occasionally in the summer her one underneath and at the base of her tail gets rubbed and irritates her. I have used baby rash cream (zinc and castor oil) and have had great results from that.
 
yes your correct.
i read / heard somewhere that grey horses are more prone to getting melanomas because of lack of skin pigmentation or something like that.
 
My old pony had a few and every time the vet was out to do boosters I would get him to check them. He always said that if they weren't getting bigger or new ones appearing then they were fine. If there are a number of them appearing at once I would get the vet out to check them as they may become malignant (cancerous) and have to be removed.
 
My mare is very similar in age & recent growth spurts. I started a thread not long ago asking about other peoples experiences of sudden melanoma increase in older horses if you want to search it. I've not got any experience of them ulcerating or bursting myself, but I believe the usual solution is just to treat as any other minor wound, but I would get advice over the phone from my vets to make sure if one of my girls burst or was causing discomfort from its location just to be on the safe side. I'd avoid getting it removed if possible, the research I did ages ago indicated they are more likely to spread once you start removing them. And I believe vets rarely advocate removal anyway. Same as with my mare, best advice I can give is not to worry too much about external ones, but to keep a close eye on anything that could indicate there's also growth (or suddenly increased growth) internally. Good luck, hope it is nothing.
 
Sudo crem, baby oil and vasalene keeps them soft and prevents rubbing together. My vet always said as long as my old mare could
Poo she was ok. Just remember they are as big on the inside as the out side
 
Sorry blooming phone! Just wanted to add her first came age seven she lived till 33 they never really caused a problem. But keep a close eye on them obviously
 
Thanks for all these replies. I will get some sudo crem on my way home tonight and see how we get on. I'll also have a chat with my vet.

He is fine in himself and poo's with out being uncomfortable and they are normal poos.

I do worry about him now he is getting older, had him 17 years and love him dearly! (maybe even a tad more than my husband!:D)
 
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