My sarcoid diary!

Rips

Active Member
May 23, 2004
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Last year my little gelding Odie became very lame and had to be put on boxrest, got very stressed and developed a sarcoid near his wither.

It started off quite small, but it grew very fast, and with in a month he had a large cauliflower type grow, about the size of a snooker ball.

It seemed to change quite a bit in appearance, sometimes proliferating, growing, sometimes it was crumbly and bits would scab and fall off, sometimes it would bleed and ooze, or have a red bobbly bit on it. It always remained relatively large though and he developed a few more. Some small scaly patches on his sheath and chest, and a bald bit near his eye, which you could have mistaken for just a bald patch, except that he's had it for months now and it had a 'pimple', like a very small wart on it.

He had quite a few issues when it first cropped up, so I didn't intend to treat it, simply because, his future wasn't looking very certain at the time.

So he had it since late last year, and thankfully, his issues for the moment seem to be mostly resolved and all that was left was the sarcoid.

I have firsthand experience of quite a few of the treatments availible, and some I just don't agree with, some are too costly, and virtually all of them have a reoccurance rate that I'm not comfortable with!!

LucyAd (member? old member?) recommended Sarc-off to me, which she had used successfully on her horse with no reoccurance, it was relatively cheap, non invasive, and I read a lot of + experiences of people using it.

I got in touch with the suppliers and they gave me a contact for it here (no mention of it ever being used here, vets I know and work with, never heard of it, no experience of it) and they actually sent it to me for free!! Protective P&P included!

So I was enthused, I would be in a good position to promote its use etc, get the word out presumably, and they obviously had faith in its use.

I applied it about a forthnight ago, I was supposed to apply it for 4 days, but managed to forget on the 4th day. So he got 3 days!

I did find it difficult to apply, as if you imagine a snooker ball (the sarcoid) on a flat surface (his healthy skin) ... its quite thick, so I could only really cover the top and sides.

I have misplaced my photographs of what it looked like when I did it (will add later) but a little worse then this...
IMAG0014.jpg

(taken in the winter)

Its supposed to take a few weeks to take effect, but after just a forthnight...

IMAG0033.jpg


You can see the patch of new hair growth around what is left of it.

Its quite frankly, amazing.
LucyAd told me, that she put her cream on the worst lesion, and left the smaller ones alone - which I would agree with. The one near his eye for example, is barely noticeable, and not worth aggravating in this first instance.
She said her horses small ones resolved when the big one fell off.

Even more amazingly - the one near his eye... without applying any cream to it, now appears to be just a healthy bald spot. The 'pimple' is gone, and its looks and feels like normal healthy skin (the hair there would be quite fine, so it remains to be seen whether it will come back or not)

And in other Odie news... he stood perfectly for the farrier, for the first time in 2 years (you have no idea what a massive relief this is!!)
 
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WOW. I had no idea it could be this easy!

Neither did I!

Hope I'm not jinxing him now, and it continues to disapear. I think that bit is like the 'root', as the top bit wasn't attached to the skin around the edges. May need another application in a few weeks if it hasn't gone.
 
Very interesting! Maya had one appear in jan which slowly got bigger and had little red bubbles appear on it and it looked sore. Vet recomended crest toothpaste which didnt work just made her itchy and sore.

After reading up on sarcoids a bit more i decided to fight it from the inside starting her on the sarcex and restore from GH within a month it had gone comletly. It vanished over the bank holiday weekend from an angry ( she kept itching it) marble sized nub to just a hard bit of skin.

If she gets another i will defo look into your stuff but will also try the GH again.
 
Who make Sarc-X? (Not that Hens has them, about the only thing he doesn't!) But I know a few friends that do!

So pleased to hear about the farrier! What a little star :D
 
Hmmm... not heard of Sarc-off. I used Global Herbs' Sarc-ex supplement last summer in Arthur's feed as he had a small one. Didn't buy the Sarc-ex cream though, used thuja and sudocreme to keep the flies off but to be honest, I think the sarcoid came and went and that the stuff I did was incidental and that it would have gone anyway. I've heard of quite a few 3 or 4yo horses that develop them and then they go, never to return so I wonder whether it is something to do with a maturing immune system.

Brilliant to see that you have had such success with Odie though... that was a whopper, wasn't it? :smile:
 
Great results from that cream. Very impressive. Could this be the end of the bane of sarcoids ?

I am still very aware that a virus could be responsible for *some* sarcoids perhaps this cream could be the beginning of the end for the spread ?

If someone's horse on my yard had sarcoids I don't think I'd share brushes etc with that horse.
 
ditto - great results!

Thanks for posting this as find it extremely interesting more so a Vol has developed a wart which i am so far assuming is a verrucose sarcoid, but going to get vet to check. Good to know there are successful creams though!
 
Hmmm... not heard of Sarc-off. I used Global Herbs' Sarc-ex supplement last summer in Arthur's feed as he had a small one. Didn't buy the Sarc-ex cream though, used thuja and sudocreme to keep the flies off but to be honest, I think the sarcoid came and went and that the stuff I did was incidental and that it would have gone anyway. I've heard of quite a few 3 or 4yo horses that develop them and then they go, never to return so I wonder whether it is something to do with a maturing immune system.

Brilliant to see that you have had such success with Odie though... that was a whopper, wasn't it? :smile:

Yes, I would be of the same opinion - however Odie got his at 7years old, he's eight this year. I've had him from a 3 yr old and he hadn't a mark on him, nor did any sarcoids pop up at injuries sites, as he had a few and they are inclined to do so.

This one popped up when he was under a huge amount of stress/discomfort etc (and he was also being kept at a cattle farm :frown: so potential carriers there)

He's had that big one for 8months, and I didn't see any reduction in size, only growing.

Since the start of the winter, 4/5 months he's been in really good form, did really well etc. I did half hope they would resolve on their own once he had recovered. When it was clear that he was going to stay that way, was when I started to treat the sarcoids ... the last month though, physically he is starting to look poor again (I'm investigating EPSM or similar due to the changes I've seen) if anything he's on a downturn, and yet the sarcoid are resolving.

Its too much to be a coincidence.

Also, absolutely nothing in his environment has changed. He didn't get any food, wasn't brought in, nothing. I literally went out into the field, dobbed the cream on and went off again. (because I've seen testimonials for homeopathic treatments, where there was so much environmental change due to the schedule, there was no way you could tell the effect of the actual 'treatment')
 
Who make Sarc-X? (Not that Hens has them, about the only thing he doesn't!) But I know a few friends that do!

So pleased to hear about the farrier! What a little star :D

Yep - just totally turned a corner. Last time he wasn't bad, but this time you couldn't fault him, he was a star. Would have stood by himself except I couldn't tempt fate! Not with his history!!!

Link here;

http://www.forumanimalhealth.co.uk/equines.asp
 
It'll be worth feeding immune plus to help support him whilst he's poor :smile:

I suppose there are all sorts of things I could feed him, but he isn't fed (and so, doesn't get supplements) and is generally a good doer. Kept great weight all winter and doesn't require any additional food ATM.

He will possibly need a specific diet if it turns out has EPSM, but otherwise, I'm not into adding supplements unless there is a specific deficiency, issue.

On top of that, I'd quite like to see how it does by itself. Don't want to cloud the issue by adding various things to his diet etc.

(When I said he looked poor physically, I was referring to the fact that he has large areas of muscular dystrophy, which aren't related to his weight)
 
Very interesting! Maya had one appear in jan which slowly got bigger and had little red bubbles appear on it and it looked sore. Vet recomended crest toothpaste which didnt work just made her itchy and sore.

After reading up on sarcoids a bit more i decided to fight it from the inside starting her on the sarcex and restore from GH within a month it had gone comletly. It vanished over the bank holiday weekend from an angry ( she kept itching it) marble sized nub to just a hard bit of skin.

If she gets another i will defo look into your stuff but will also try the GH again.

Me too used Sarc Ex and not Restore,but Immuplus from Global Herbs.

We had 5, and over time (and touches wood it continues), we are sarcoid free for over six months now.
 
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