Melanomas

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SSS2021

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Hello,

I have an older grey horse who's had melanomas on and under his dock since I've had him the past 10 years. After one incident years ago where he rubbed his tail out of annoyance from flies and caused the melanomas to bleed (then get ulcerated, infected, etc.), I learned to always cover him with a fly blanket in the summer months to protect him from the flies, which has been successful.

I recently decided to retire him, but all proper "retirement" options in the region where I live consist of horses being turned out in huge pastures with other horses 24/7, without any fly masks or rugs. This seems the ideal retirement for any horse, but in my case, stable managers are not able to manage blankets with horses living in a "wild state" like that. Two days into his retirement, my horse had rubbed his tail against the trees, with the resulting bleeding. The stable managers are refusing the turn him back out to pasture and he is now relegated to a small paddock on his own for several hours a day with stabling at night, as it's the only way they can cover him. This breaks my heart as it's the exact opposite of what I wanted for him.

Does anyone have similar experiences with melanomas? how do you manage giving the horse as comfortable a retirement as possible with maximum turnout while protecting them from flies?
 
All the yards within 45 minutes from me have small, rocky or hilly pastures and little or bad grazing. Many retirement places are owned by farmers (agriculture rather than horse people), who only rent out land for retired horses to make money on the side. After extensive research, I chose the place that had the largest land surface per horse, with beautiful grazing, and a professional rider living on site. Unfortunately, I didn't expect that he would be so sensitive to the flies so quickly.
 
I hope this isn't an upsetting suggestion, but if what Amymay suggests is isn't practicable, then I'm afraid I would question whether his quality of life means that he might be better off PTS. A dead horse can never feel pain or upset ever again.
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ycbm said:
I hope this isn't an upsetting suggestion, but if what Amymay suggests is isn't practicable, then I'm afraid I would question whether his quality of life means that he might be better off PTS. A dead horse can never feel pain or upset ever again.
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That is an upsetting suggestion, but I understand where it's coming from. If there is no solution to his seemingly idyllic retirement I had found for him, the alternative would be to bring him back to his former stable, where he had a few hours of turnout every day, and stabling the rest of the day. It's not a bad option of itself, as he is still very much happy to be ridden and hacked out and is in otherwise fantastic fitness for his age. But I wanted to give him as happy a retirement as possible.
 
You are a very caring owner, I hope you find a solution. I don't know where you are, but there's a track livery near me called Gawsworth where I'm pretty sure they would manage him properly.
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Could you look further afield for one that could manage him, eg the one ycbm suggested, even if it's not local to you it might be best for your horse.
 
ycbm said:
You are a vet caring owner, I hope you find a solution. I don't know where you are, but there's a track livery near me called Gawsworth where I'm pretty sure they would manage him properly.
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That's very kind of you, thank you! Unfortunately I live outside of the UK... :-(
 
I would definitely look for a different yard. Although many retirement places have more of a hands off approach, there are some who offer normal full livery services. If you don’t need to go as often then further afield could work?

I am assuming these melenomas wouldn’t be worth removing at this stage?
 
My retirement livery yard is very hands on but only have 6 retired horses (others Full/DIY etc). Its not cheap but the horses have 24x7 turnout, massive field shelters (actually they have a barn that opens onto the field) so there is room for all. Rugs/fly masks etc go on and off as required and they have always managed to find me a stable when one of my had a foot abcess in the winter. I did put him on full livery for that time so poultices were changed as required by them (he needs 2 people so I couldn't go up and do it myself). The reason they have so few vacancies for retired horses is that they are on paddocks immediately behind the yard so its easy for the rug chaging/hay distribution and generally keeping an eye on them, It does sound as though your horse needs a full livery package for retired horses, its really difficult finding these places
 
Bring him home, and manage the situation properly. At least this will give you time to explore any other possible options, and if non are to be found then you would have to decide whether you can keep him, fully retired, or not. Here's hoping you can find a solution that works.
 
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