RE: melanoma I think

["Kathy Mayeda" <kathy_mayeda@atce.com>]

I have a grey with small melanomas on his poll, his belly and on his tail.
His dam had terrible gross melanomas under her tail.  The vets say to
leave them alone unless they are in a bad spot functionally because they
tend to come back with a vengeance.  They don't bother my gelding at all
and tack does come into contact with them on the poll and belly.

On the other hand, the handicapped riding program that I used to volunteer
for had a grey mare that had them removed because they were near the girth
line.  They did it in the fall right before going out to pasture for the
winter. It healed up fine without any reoccurence.

Don't know what to say, except for it probably would be easier to
excise if they were smaller than larger.  If they took them off the
dam I'm sure it would have been a lot more riskier than taking them
off my grey gelding.  The dam passed away at the ripe age of 32,
having had these gross melanomas at least half of her life.

Just keep an eye on it and make sure it's not a sarcoid.

K.

-----Original Message-----
From: DAldr94141@aol.com [mailto:DAldr94141@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2001 5:24 AM
To: ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: RC: melanoma I think


Hi. I have a 7 yr. old appy mare I noticed just a couple of days ago has
a 
round hard lump on her foreleg right where it meets the chest. It's
actually 
on the chest a little. The lump is between the size of a pea and a
marble. My 
riding instructor was looking at it and squeezed it like a pimple and
some 
black old blood came out. It went down but was back up the next day. 
I hadn't noticed it before. The vet said it may be a melanoma and he 
suggested it be taken off. He said horses that are grey with black skin
are 
more susceptible to getting these. Don't know about taking it off tho.
Does 
anyone have any opinions or had experience with problems in taking this
off? 
Is it worth the time and money to do so? Thanks. Deb