Sarcoids - what works and what doesn't

neverenoughtea

neverenoughtea

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So as every owner of a horse diagnosed with sarcoids must feel, I'm pretty gutted my 7yo sports horse has succumbed to this incurable disease. Despite this, I'm trying to remain positive! He has had 2 identified; one occult and one nodular, both smaller than a 10p piece. We caught them early and he has had them treated with Liverpool cream. The tissue around the sarcoids swelled up pretty significantly during treatment and he was noticably uncomfortable during the last couple of days of cream application. However, 2.5 weeks after treatment started, and a week after it finished I'm back on board.

I have been feeding him Sarc-Ex by Global herbs since diagnosis (around 6 weeks ago) and have no idea if this will help but it seems to have glowing reviews from a number of users. I've just bought tub 2 (who knows if tub 1 helped at all...). They say to give it at least 3 months, so here goes.

I am well aware that sarcoids are a form of skin cancer, and the treatments that are available to help rid the horse of these tumours. I am really after a bit of advice from those of you out there who have tried and tested treatments, your thoughts and experiences on what worked and what seemed to be a waste of time/money?

I'm also on the look out for good tips on waterproof rainsheets to help keep pesky flies at bay.

Any help very gratefully received, and I will update on any progress on the Sarc-Ex front.

Thanks!
 
I can only give you my experience, which was with a horse that had previously been operated on to remove an extremely aggressive large mass of sarcoids around the fetlock. Worked for a while, then they grew back. Horse was non-weight bearing lame on that leg, so it was last chance saloon. Supervaccination followed up with Liverpool cream did the job. This was a kill-or-cure, unapproved for horses treatment, and not something I'd leap towards unless the alternative was PTS (as in this case). The cream made him uncomfortable too, and if he wasn't young, well mannered, and a 'very nice sort' then it never would have been tried.

Horse has not had a problem since then, is happily competing BE, and is still a lovely person to be around. He does have a couple more sarcoids (groin and ear) that are small and don't affect him at all; we monitor closely in case of change but don't want to poke the sleeping dragon!

We don't do anything different with his management, no supplements, no special rugs, so I can't help you there :)
 
One of mine had a large one on one side of his sheath, about as big as your thumb to the first joint. His sharer (now his owner) fed him Echinacea & it dropped off, & 6 months later you can see where it was but it hasn't really grown back. He is now on Global Herbs turmeric which has black pepper added, instead of Echinacea, & he hasn't grown any new ones yet. He is grey & he's 12/13.

T x
 
neverenoughtea said:
So as every owner of a horse diagnosed with sarcoids must feel, I'm pretty gutted my 7yo sports horse has succumbed to this incurable disease. Despite this, I'm trying to remain positive! He has had 2 identified; one occult and one nodular, both smaller than a 10p piece. We caught them early and he has had them treated with Liverpool cream. The tissue around the sarcoids swelled up pretty significantly during treatment and he was noticably uncomfortable during the last couple of days of cream application. However, 2.5 weeks after treatment started, and a week after it finished I'm back on board.

I have been feeding him Sarc-Ex by Global herbs since diagnosis (around 6 weeks ago) and have no idea if this will help but it seems to have glowing reviews from a number of users. I've just bought tub 2 (who knows if tub 1 helped at all...). They say to give it at least 3 months, so here goes.

I am well aware that sarcoids are a form of skin cancer, and the treatments that are available to help rid the horse of these tumours. I am really after a bit of advice from those of you out there who have tried and tested treatments, your thoughts and experiences on what worked and what seemed to be a waste of time/money?

I'm also on the look out for good tips on waterproof rainsheets to help keep pesky flies at bay.

Any help very gratefully received, and I will update on any progress on the Sarc-Ex front.

Thanks!
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Have a look for THE TURMERIC USER GROUP on facebook lots of people use it for horses with good results,a vet started the group so you will find lots of help and advice .
 
I'm not sure why you call it an incurable disease. In most horses they are fairly easily cured, either spontaneously by the horse or by various treatments available to vets. I have posted elsewhere that I have a long record of success taking them off with a very common chemical. I have a particularly prone horse at the moment who had some stress at the end of April which caused him to regrow a couple and spring out several new ones. I've taken them all off, and in a bid to stop him developing any more I have put him on sarc-ex. It's early days yet but there is absolutely no mistaking that the way they are healing this time is very different, and much faster than they ever have before.

I can't help wondering if there is too much being done these days with small single sarcoids which aren't growing. I've taken them off horses which I want to sell, and for cosmetic reasons, and in this horse with multiples because it is recommended not to leave multiples, with concern that they can go internal. But the fact is that the vast majority of small single sarcoids of most types will cause the horse that's got them no problem at all for the whole of its life.
 
My horse had a small occult sarcoid. It wasn't bothering her and wasn't interfering with ridden work. I was reluctant to go down the Liverpool cream route because I know how caustic it is. After discussion with my vet, it was agreed I would do nothing but keep a close eye on it for any signs of growth. I applied lots of fly repellent gel and spray to keep flies away, she wore a flyrug most of the time. I also feed echinacea to boost her immune system. After 6-8 months I noticed the sarcoid seemed to be smaller. This continued and 2 years later there is no sarcoid.

Occult sarcoids do on occasion just resolve themselves - according to my vet anyway. I use lots of fly protection in the form of gels, sprays and rugs.
 
I'm very firmly in the camp of if it isn't interfering with tack and it isn't showing any changes then leave it alone.

Having said that we've had a couple where they have changed from flat to very lumpy - those I've treated with SarcOff ointment (bloodrooot) which I asked my vet to get for me. I've always seen results with that and it isn't as invasive (or painfull) as the Liverpool cream. Equally we've had some that have been treated several times with the Liverpool cream and it hasn't worked.
 
Mine had a clump of sarcoids around his eye. Lead Vet who specializes in sarcoids (cant remember his name!!) told us within the year he would be put down. Had him on the Sarc-ex powder daily and applied the Sarc-ex cream religiously. They have completely cleared up and you could not tell they had ever been there.
 
My mare had an occult sarcoid in her arm pit. Under veterinary supervision I decided to leave it alone & see how it went. After a year it has become bigger and has nodules underneath it and bleeds sometimes. The vet said that we could use cryotherapy (freeze it off), bloodroot ointment or Liverpool cream. I asked him what he would do if it was his horse & he said he would use Liverpool cream.
The cream should be arriving next week. She will need 4 applications over 7 days and then a follow up 4 weeks later to see if it has worked. Fingers crossed!
 
My horse was very successfully treated with liverpool cream, it was very toxic but it did the job and it was not as expensive as I feared. We watched my horse for 3 years before we noticed the sarcoid growing larger and then she had the treatment. I would not hesitate to use it again after a wait and watch period. It worked very successfully in her case.
 
Thanks everyone so much for your responses - good to hear some success stories with te Liverpool cream, and I've joined the tumeric group on FB so thanks, I'll be looking more into it.

Ycbm I checked out your other posts - very interesting. I'm definitely going to look into your copper sulphate method but not sure how confident I'd feel administering it myself. Your results look very good though.

Thanks again everyone 😊
 
We are near a marshy area and very fly ridden. Our horses do seem to have sarcoids in small epidemics. I have to say when I lived elsewhere we never had them.
I have used Sarc-ex powder and think it really does help, even if your horse smells like a greek take-away while you're using it, and it can cause them to scour badly, although I think that is part of the toxin removal.
I'm very un-hippy and not a huge follower of the more alternative methods of horse medicine but I used it on a gypsy type cob who had sarcoids like small bunches of grapes hanging off her. It cured all but one, which grew on the back of her tendon and was very hard to treat, although we were able to reduce it with the Liverpool cream.
Just be aware that the Liverpool cream is basically a chemotherapy and take great care with it.
My vet used it on a pony with a sarcoid on it's ear. Just after he had applied it , it shook it's head violently, causing a blob of it to fly off and fortunately I was wearing sunglasses as it landed like a bird poo on the lens. I dread to think what might have happened if it had gone in my eye!
Also while using the Liverpool cream the horse can feel very poorly, just as anyone would having chemotherapy.
I do think sarcoids are on the increase generally, and wonder whether this is due to climate change, like many other things - sycamore poisoning, headshaking etc.
 
That's interesting Moose, I thought mine had started scouring because of the warmth and grass growth, but the timing is spot on for the sarc ex. Worryingly, he also has bounding foot pulses, and I don't know if those are related. He's totally sound, but I'm watching him like a hawk, of course. On the sarcoid front, the healing has been nothing short of amazing, very different from other times.

I'm not sure they are on the increase. They might be, but I think we hear far more about them since they were confirmed as skin cancer and became an automatic vet 'failure'.
 
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