sarcoids

[Firehorse]

jst some advice pls. my mare has a couple of tiny ones on her legs. they havent grown in the year i've had her.
just buying a gelding who has a sarcoid on his sheath area. the previous owner photographed it when they got him 2 yrs ago and it hasnt grown in that time. it hasnt bothered me, as my mare has them. is it best to jst leave alone as it hasnt changed, or maybe try a homeopathic remedy to shrink it. its smaller than a brussel sprout.

 

[Grey_Eventer]

i would say leave it, especially as they are not in an area which would affect the horse. my mare has some on her neck- just behind her ear and a few on her leg. the ones on her leg grow, but take about 5 years to get to just bigger than a brussel sprout. so we just leave it as it falls off when it stretches the skin. personally unless they are in an area where it would affect the horse there is no point in doing anything. there is a cream that you can get- through a vet from a university but costs £80 to buy and the vet has to put it on as so strong. especially as they are not growing i wouldnt worry.

 

[OakeyT]

I would ask your vets advice, you can also get advice from the sarcoid experts at liverpool. Their website is www.liv.ac.uk/sarcoid

Like Prof Knottenbelt says 'the only predictable thing about sarcoids is they are unpredictable'

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Do a search on this forum breezey - there have been a lot of posts on sarcoids recently and loads of informative replies x

 

[Lucy_Nottingham]

sarcoids are a form of cancer........ this is not to say they are going to cause the horse to keel over due to have a sarcoid but it means they are likely to (eventually) grow, even slightly.

If at the minute its not painful, not causing any issues etc then leave be...... However I know some vets prefer to remove them before anything happens.
Some are like a large pea in a surrounding pocket of skin. These can be removed by small surgery (Local anaesthetic, scalpel, pop it out!) which is the most common way of removing a sarcoid from a sheath.
The liverpool cream is basically a toxic cream which burns the sarcoid out, (hence very rarely used on the sheath area....... could you imagine how much it would hurt?!)
Other option is chemotherapy. Basically injecting a routine of drugs into it to shrink and get rid (as much as possible) of it.... one drug is acutally a cattle vaccine..... go figure! This is often done on sarcoids round the face, generally near the eye!

Id check with your vet what they think when your gelding comes home! but Until it concerns you I would think I owuld be fine!

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Breezey, smaller than a brussel sprout sounds quite big! Be very, very cautious about what you decide to do. As LN says, true sarcoids are a form of skin cancer. You have to be ultra careful that you don't unwittingly do anything that may cause hem to grow and spread. Knocks, bumps, flies, home made recipes and surgical interventions can all cause the sarcoid to grow and spread. What was once a relatively harmless lump can become a serious problem that at best means you can't ride your horse and at worst means the horse has no quality of life. A sarcoid under tack will get rubbed - indeed there may be a link between areas that are constantly rubbed and the development of sarcoids. Similarly, a sarcoid on a part of the horse where treatment options may be limited or fly attack on an oozing raw area would be a problem may easily leap into an aggressive stage at the drop of a hat. Hopefully your new horse's sarcoid will never grow bigger but I'd certainly seek your vet's advice as advised by Prof Knottenbelt at Liverpool.

 

[StinkiPinki]

Does anyone know if sarcoids can be spread by flies?

I have two lovely horses that are sarcoid free but am moving them to a great livery yard where one of the horses has bad sarcoids...

Sorry to hijck thread!x

 

[hairycob]

From what I can make out sarcoid transmission is not well understood & the only agreement is that it's not straightforward. Quite a few people subsribe to the theory that the bovine papilloma virus that can be spread by flies is involved in some way, but taht other factors need to be there as well - genetic susceptibilty, other envirinmental factors etc, etc. In short - don't worry. If it helps I have 3 horses. One has over 30 sarcoids (I gave up counting), neither of my others has any & one of them has been in the same field as her for over 4 years. She had 2 other field companions for over 5 years & neither of them got sarcoids.

 

[Lucy_Nottingham]

Sarcoids are (from what I have been taught so far) not spread. they are a skin cancer, so not transmittable (not saying it CANT happen, just that it is not really recorded as doing so) so Id say flies are not really a problem!! just a problem with open wounds!

 

[StinkiPinki]

Thanks guys, my mind iis put at ease!x

 

[kelz07]

Hey, about a year ago my yearling had 2 scarcoids one on his belly just behind where the girth will go and one on his inner thigh. I had the vet come and look at them and he said if they are not growing or causing a problem than it it best to leave them as putting lotions and stuff on them can aggrivate them and can make them harder to be treated by the vet. Unfortunatly the on my horses belly started growing and got to about the size of a 50pence piece. I had the vet again and he said that it needed to be treated, i use the cream from liverpool method and the vet came and put it on every other day for a week. Now 6 months on they have both dropped off. thankfully. I would suggest that if they are not growing then leave them as if they do cause problems in the future you may make them harder to treat if you put things on them now.

Hope this helps.

 

[TPO]

QR

I would involve a vet and not be tempted to try any "alternative" treatments. Like someone said the only thing predictable about sarcoids is that they are unpredictable!

My mare out of the blue developed 2 tiny ones on her girth area. My previous vet photographed them and sent the pics to Prof Knottenbelt who then sent up the cream. The vets came out over a 7 day period and applied the cream but they didn't seem to check the area and turns out they were only treating one sarcoid (seemed unaware that there were two!)

After 6wks they appeared to fall off but they came back and as I'd moved practice for various reasons I got my new vets to look. My new vets also "found" 2 plague sarcoids between her back legs that my previous practice had said I was paranoid about and was just dry skin!!

Anyway, my new vets are very up to date and their thoughts on sarcoids is to get rid of them asap. They use liverpool cream where possible unless it's in an area which wouldn't be suitable. They are in contact with Prof Knottenbelt.

My vets are off the opinion that it has been confirmed that flies do spread the virus? That is why the commenced treatment so quickly on my mare as they wished to miss "fly season". Her course of treatment finished last week and hopefully the sarcoids will be off in next 2-4wks. If not it means leaving them until after the summer before re-treating.

The Prof Knottenbelt website is definitely the best source of information that I found while googling. I think he too is also against the use of other creams, especially camarosa.

Smaller than a brussel sprout sounds large to me. My mares was smaller than a squashed jelly tot and her biggers is slightly bigger than a 50p (although it's swollen and raised now with treatment).

So my point is speak to your vet! I just ramble a lot!

 

[hairycob]

The only thing I would warn you about the Liverpool Cream is they have a tendency to say they haven't received photos, even after they have confirmed they have! They've done this twice with me so make sure your Vet is sharp on chasing them up & sending copies pronto if needs be.