Tuesday 21 May 2013

Rachael's Corner: Sarcoids in Horses


In the Tictac Equestrian office today we have been discussing the horrible equine ailment of “sarcoids”.  My horse Honey is currently suffering from sarcoids on her chest and underneath her girth area – one of which stopped me from riding for a while.  Jenny, the boss, also had a horse with a sarcoid, sadly due to the speed of its growth – it was a particularly terrible type, eventually her horse had to be put to sleep L she was heartbroken.
Often people in the equine community know surprisingly little about this disease and a lot of false information is often passed about. For years sarcoids have been belittled and under estimated by the term "wart." Believe it or not, sarcoids are actually a form of equine skin cancer. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer diagnosed in horses, sarcoids being the most common of these.

It is thought that if a horse has a sarcoid, it can decrease their value by 90% (therefore, if a horse was worth £10,000, it would be considered to only be worth £1000 due to this condition)… quite a scary fact!  Research is still being carried out across the world to find further treatment for this horrible disease.

It is common for sarcoids to re occur even if removing previous lesions have been successful. There are many treatments available through your vet; including steroid creams, surgical removing, arsenic cream or freezing with liquid nitrogen. If you prefer the more natural / herbal treatments, Botanica has proven extremely successful at healing sarcoids, wounds and mudrash – whilst preventing scars in horses.

If you have any suspicion that your horse may have a sarcoid, please do contact your vet. The earlier they are treated, the higher the likeliness of successful treatment! GOOD LUCK! and please let us know how you get on – we would love to hear your stories and see your before and after photos. Contact us through our Facebook or Twitter page.

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