Sarcoids, your experiences good and bad please.

[Adina]

Although this thread is very encouraging, it appears that the "success" or "no change" stories are with occult, verrucous or nodular sarcoids. Unfortunately my yearling has fibroblastic sarcoids in his groin. The outlook is not good. The Bcg vaccine injections are now banned, I know of a similar treatment available in US but it is not licenced for the UK.

 

[Casey76]

Tartine has a (what I assume is a) sarcoid on her face; it is a flat scale about the size of a new 50p. It hasn't changed in the 5 years I've owned her, and I'm not messing with it!

We have another pony on the yard who is plagued by them. About 3 years ago he had laser surgery where they removed 46 in one sitting. The recovery was horrendous due to the removal of so much tissue. Since then he has them pop up at fairly frequent intervals where they are banded when noticed.

 

[Ruby's Mum]

My miniature horse cross has 15 sarcoids on his sheath and has two on his tummy (Centre line - I tell him it is where he was stitched up in the teddy bear factory). I keep a close eye on them and they have not changed or multiplied in the 10 years I've had him. Multiple vets have said to leave them alone and not treat. He is in his early twenties.

 

[Crazydancer]

Bought my lad as a yearling, developed a sarcoid on his chest at around 2 or 3 years old, surgically removed. He's still with me, sarcoid-free and rising 26.

 

[JJS]

Touch wood, none of mine have suffered from them, but I do know someone whose cob had one at around four or five (I think). The sarcoid was on his face, and was successfully treated with Liverpool Cream. I don't believe he's had a recurrence since, and that must have been a good four years ago now.

 

[sunnyone]

We took on a companion mare who was in foal, sight unseen and no history. She had numerous sarcoids which vet said to band off as and when required. None grew back, but a few more did appear and were dealt with.
After weaning the foal my friend asked if we could try riding said mare, as sarcoids were not on legs or saddle area.Judging by the way she went she'd done all riding club activities previously and was a joy for my friend to take out and about.
I last got an update on the foal when he was 18; he's never had sarcoids.

 

[EnglishRose]

Bought a 6 year old mare with a nodule at the base of her ear, at vetting, vet said probably a small sarcoid, decided to go ahead with the purchase anyway after doing a bit of research as she was such a lovely mare. The 'nodule' did develop into a verrucous sarcoid. I asked the opinion of several professional sources which ranged from leave well alone to the treatment available in the form of Liverpool cream. Mare was already extremely head shy due to being ear twitched at some stage - I imagine harshly - in a former home and I was interested in the homeopathic approach to start with. Started her on Thuja cream and Thuja tablets 30C @ three times a day served in half an apple. The cream I applied liberally. Nothing happened for approximately 10 - 14 days, then one morning I found the area around her ear looking quite red and irritated, I continued with the tablets but left the cream off for a couple of days until it looked a little more comfortable. Very soon after the sarcoid started flaking away. I left it alone then. Stopped the Thuja cream but completed the course of Thuja tablets. The area soon dried up into old skin, the sarcoidy nodule became increasingly smaller, hair started to grow back and happily she now, about a year on, has complete hair growth at the base of her ear, no sign of any sarcoid or nodule - fingers crossed for the future !

 

[southerncomfort]

Only ever had one pony with sarcoids. They were the flat type located in her 'armpits'. Vet said to leave them alone which we did and they never gave her any bother at all.

 

[Vintagehacker]

I bought my ISH mare 7 years ago. She had 3 sarcoids: 1 flat one in her armpit and 2 nodule ones (not very big) on her inner thighs. She was exactly what I was looking for in a horse and decided ( never having experienced them before and so in ignorance) to proceed with the purchase. After about 4 years two more appeared in the same area and then one suddenly appeared right up between her udder and thigh and grew rapidly to the size of a tangerine. My regular vet suggested waiting until the autumn and no flies and he would tie them off. I didn’t know how he would be able to access the worst one to do that, so I got another opinion.
She was taken into an equine hospital, given general anaesthetic and they were lasered off, except the flat one which was cryogenically removed. I was shocked when I saw the wounds as they were pretty awful, and I wondered if I had done the right thing by her. The healing treatment initially was pretty tricky, as she wouldn’t let me near them to clean them and apply ointment. Instead the vet sedated her for the first few times and could do it that way, after which as they began to improve, she let me do it. During this time being winter and wet and muddy she was kept in to avoid mud getting into the wounds and infecting them.
It should have taken about six to eight weeks weeks to heal, but just as they were really well on the way and she had been turned out for a few hours, she had ‘a mare session in the field bucking, rearing and skidding to a halt, whereupon she ripped the skin above the worst one to a 6” tear! It couldn’t be stitched and was difficult to clean again and we had to repeat the cleaning and box rest again for a further 3 weeks.
I swore I wouldn’t put her through that again should they return, but if it were only one or two not too big - who knows? That was two and a half years ago and one little one has appeared at the bottom of her neck adjoining the chest. There hasn’t been any others to date. The little one about the size of a pea, I have been treating with Thuga cream for the past 10 days and it has shrunk already.
I think lasering is good, but the wounds can be quite horrific initially, and my mare did have six done at once with one very large and inaccessible one, which made it worse.

 

[ycbm]

Thuja oil isn't homeopathic, it's a real medicine with a potent chemical in it. It has been shown to have anti viral and immune system boosting properties, among other things. There are quite a few reports of success with thuja. I'd like to see some proper testing of it done, instead of writing off cases where it appears to have worked as spontaneous remission.

 

[be positive]

Thuja oil isn't homeopathic, it's a real medicine with a potent chemical in it. It has been shown to have anti viral and immune system boosting properties, among other things. There are quite a few reports of success with thuja. I'd like to see some proper testing of it done, instead of writing off cases where it appears to have worked as spontaneous remission.

The one here was treated with Thuja, the sarcoids were near his eyes so needed care applying anything, there will be no real testing done as it is readily available and there is no profit to be made from proving it works, Liverpool cream is far too profitable for them to want to look into something else and risk losing the income.

 

[Mule]

Strangely enough I've never seen a horse with one.