Success rates with treating Sarcoids?

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Hovis_and_SidsMum

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If its not one thing its another......
I had the vet out today for a flu jab for Hovis and asked her to look at this tiny little lump that appeared last week on his tummy.
Its really little and looked at first like a fly bite. However unlike other fly bites its not gone away so I asked her to have a look.
The upshot is she thinks its a sarcoid and has taken photos of it etc to take back to the hospital for someone to have a look. She's going to ring me later to discuss treatment options.
Are sarciods still the horror story they used to be? This one on Hovis is no bigger than a small wart on a human and is under his tummy (thankfully no where near where his saddle etc goes). Can i spread it when i groom him? I don't know much about them as have never had a horse with one.
 
I had a mare with a sarcoid on the corner of her eye. It was horrible; sore and bleeding. As she was in foal, the vet didn't want to remove it and I asked about Camrosa. Vet was sceptical, but said OK, to give it a try. It took a while but it worked and sarcoid shrank and eventually disappeared completely.
I know other people don't like Camrosa, but it worked for me.
I believe Vicijp had excellent results with Liverpool cream and Star (who is a vet) has been treating her horse for sarcoids.
 
Yes, they can be a nightmare and lead to a horse becoming unridable (because they tend to pop up where the tack goes) Sometimes they have to be PTS because they become so riddled with them and they get infected.

The general wisdom is.... if a sarcoid is not causing a problem, ie, it is not interfering with tack or harness, and the horse isn't catching it.... LEAVE WELL ALONE.

Treatment can stimulate more sarcoids to pop up when they otherwise wouldn't have. Treatment is not always sucessful and can make things much worse.

The only predictable thing about sarcoids is that they are unpredictable. The horse could have one which might fall off all on its own, or it might stay the same for years. Or the horse could become riddled with them in a matter of months. No one can say!

Sarcoids have a viral component, the bovine papiloma virus I think, however, it is not thought that they spread between horses. Flies have been implicated as a cause of sarcoids spreading from one part of a horse to another.

http://www.sarcoids.co.uk/references.htm
 
My sister's horse had a 'wart' on his ear when we bought himand it turned out to be a sarcoid. We had it removed/frozen off under sedation and local anaesthetic and so far (4 years later) it has not reappeared. He also has tiny wart like ones near his sheath and we just keep an eye on them. You cannot spread them as far as I am aware but there are various different types and some grow more aggressively than others i believe (I could be wrong there though!). Providing it's not interfering with anywhere the tack goes then I wouldn't worry about it, just keep your eye on it for it growing. You can have it removed and he may never have any more but often they do reoccur at some stage.
 
Are you kidding??? I think my horse has one between his legs under the tail? Would that be a sarcoid, my friend has told me it is! How do I get rid of it????
 
My horse developed them soon after I got him as a 4 year old. Despite me telling the vet I thought he had sarcoids (3 times) it was 6 months before they were diagnosed (by another vet) and he was treated. We used to send video's and photos to Dr Knottenbelt at Liverpool and he sent the cream back to my vets. The cream is nasty (needs bute and can't be ridden for a couple of weeks during treatment) but my horse had quite a few (10-12) and they were all treated successfully in 3-4 lots of treatment, and they've never come back (he's 16 now).
I would recommend you do have it treated, it should clear up with one lot of the Liverpool cream as it's failry new and small.
 
I went to a lecture by Dr K if you want you can PM me I was writing a reply but it was a bit epic and technical so I gave up.

I agree with others, if it is one on its own not in the way leave well enough alone, invest in a fly rug and be careful with wound management. My mare has had treatment with the cream sucessfully. Other people on here have had success with alternative treatments, thuja (sp?) has been mentioned. But tread very carefully because you can easily make it worse. I wouldn't do anything without checking first with your vet.
 
Same as everyone else really except to highlight the need to take great care what you apply to something you THINK might be a sarcoid. Some of the creams and stuff work by promoting cell renewal and growth. A true sarcoid is a type of skin cancer (uncontrolled cell growth) so the last thing you want to do is encourage further cell growth. I've had good experiences of Liverpool cream applied by the vet and thuja cream at 30c potency. Both were for things that looked like sarcoids. My vets said that the current thinking is if it LOOKS like a sarcoid, treat it as if it IS one. However, I think a lot of apparent successes are because it wasn't a true sarcoid in the first place. You never know. HorseSOS - didn't like the sound of the one under ned's tail. That sounds more like a melanoma, especially if ned is a grey and/or a veteran.
 
i'll warn u now yr going to laugh and not believe me but i swear this worked

had a mare with a sarcoid between her nostrils and had treid everything the vet suggested to no avail, them some old boy down the pub told us to cut a potato in half rub one half on the sarcoid and bury the other half!!!! so being slightly worse for wear we thought for a laugh when we got home it sounded like a good idea
so we dutifully followed his instructions and bugger me if it wasnt gone in 4 months
wether it was the potato or not who knows!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
George has a small bean sized sarcoid on his belly that appeared in Jan, I decided to leave it alone but then it got a bit bigger and raw looking and the vet advised that it was far better to treat it whilst it was small. He had his first treatment with the Liverpool cream yesterday and may have to have bute depending on how it affects him. I am dreading how awful it may look before it gets better, i just hope he doesn't get too sore. There is just no knowing whether you are doing the right thing or not.
 
My 16 yr old mare had one when she was 5, had it treated by the vet and it's never returned! Hers was by her belly button and looked a little like a button, roundish, about 3mm deep and attached by a single root, not like a human wart at all, but there was a horse a the same yard that had a horrible, red, tumour type thing on his back thigh, was PTS in the end as nothing else could be done! If in doubt, try the potato! Least invasive 1st! Good luck!
 
Depends on the type of sarcoid and where they are. A gelding of ours had them on his sheath, inside the hind leg and on his neck and elbows, 3 different types in all.

We used oral thuja, thuja cream and calendolon ointment. We also fed plenty of garlic, apparently the ancient Egyptian used it to fight cancer.

That was 6 years ago and they disappeared and have not come back.
 
My mare had a nodular sarcoid hanging down between her legs Vet did a biopsy as thought it was something else - made it look like she was having a sex change! Vet advised no treatment & about 10 days ago I noticed the skin has split & the lump had gone. Looked gross, but is healing up ok. She has loads of other small ones, just hoping none crop up anywhere under her tack.
 
I found some sarcoids on my new young horse a few days after I got him 6 months ago (buried under his fur in December so missed by the vet!). I called my own vet who came and photographed them and ordered some Liverpool cream. It didn't arrive for ages, and in the meantime, all but one of them had completely disappeared. The remaining one was tiny, on his sheath, so a tiny drop of cream was applied every other day (3 times), it had no side effects and he didn't need bute or time off, and the last one has now completely gone. Just crossing my fingers that they don't come back, the vet says they can sometimes be casued by stress, and he had several moves in a few weeks so think that may have been what brought them on.
 
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