Sarcoid growth and diet

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Super_Kat

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As some may know my wee polocrosse pony, Woody, has a fair few sarcoids which he had treated last January. The tumours above the skin that could be banded were and they had liverpool cream applied aswell and all of the scaly patches were just treated with liverpool cream. He also had a tumour up in his groin the size of a satsuma which was injected with liverpool cream.
After the treatment everything gradually fell off and now it all looks good. The tumour up in his groin shrank to the size of a small satsuma then around june time he developed 2 more round tumours attached to it and they all started growing
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At last feel (around 2 months ago) it felt like he had a large satsuma with 2 large grapes attached to it (fruit is the best thing I can use to describe it I'm afraid!). Went and saw him yesterday and checked the sarcoids, I thought he would have to be put on his back in the new year to have them cut out judging by the rate they were growing but to my suprise the 2 small tumours had seperated from the lagre one and they were about 1/3 of the size they used to be. I told OH this morning and once he'd stopped laughing at my excitement (
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) he mentioned hearing something about high sugar diets affecting sarcoid growth (i.e. causing them to shrink).
Now Woody has been staying with a friend who has been trying to fatten him up so he's being fed something along the lines of - conditioning mix/sugar beet/chaff etc. Could this change in diet have an effect on the sarcoids? I was always under the impression that sarcoids didn't just 'go away' so this has intreagued me slightly!
 
Sarcoids have been known to just disappear and can also just drop off but that usually happens when there is a cut in the blood supply and often come back with a vengence. Fingers crossed for you that its self reducing a good sign during winter as thats usually when they grow wonder if that ties in with diet/ grazing period etc. mmmm
 
My horse had one and its seems to have "just gone away"
He had a vericouse SP (the flat one) sarcoid the size of a 50p just behind his ear when I got him. I tried many different things as didn't want to go down the medical route at first as it wasn't growing and wasn't bothering him. He had about 9 months of Sarcex from global herbs which didn't seem to make a difference so eventually I stopped using it and just got him on a good balanced diet of Pony nuts, alfalf a oil, alfabeet and blue chip.

Then someone suggested echinachea so he got about two bottles of that and at the same time Naf were testing a new echinacea wash that you applied with cotton wool - suddenly it disappeared. and a year later it hasn't appeared again - very weird! He has a couple on his tummy that i have never applied the stuff to, kind of used them as the control I guess - which makes me think that the thing that worked was the wash.

I met a girl at a training thing once and her horse had a similar sarcoid to mine when she bought it but after having her for 2 years it just went (so maybe mine was going anyway) the horse had been in poor condition when she bought it and she thought it was just the balanced diet that sorted it out.

So at the end of the day - Sarcoids are a mystery!

Hope your boy gets his sorted out - it can't be nice having a fruit bowl between his legs
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Hmmmm, interesting.
Ours had a small sarcoid when we got her and was alson a bit under condition.
I always said it was the thurja we used that got rid of it but maybe it had something to do with the improved diet and hence improved condition.
 
Sarcoids are also known as "unhealing wounds", and can be due to a challenged immune system meaning they aren't attacked in the normal way by the horses immune system. Using enchinacea or something similar to support the immune system can help. Thuja is another one that an help
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I read a magazine article that advised avoiding high starch diets for horses with sarcoids as it might cause tumours to grow. The article recommended getting energy from oil instead. But I don't believe the article was based on any scientific research, just anecdotal evidence. I avoid cereals with my mare (who has had sarcoids for 13 years now), but I have always found that her sarcoids are most likely to start growing in the spring when the grass comes through.

To be honest I think that the triggers for sarcoid growth are different in different horses. Best of luck on finding a way of managing them with Woody!
 
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