I finally found a horse I love and he has a huge (egg size) melanoma on his tail… Any advice? Should I buy him or not if everything else checks out OK?? 
Owner said he bought him with that (5 years ago) and who knows how long he had it before. It has not increased in size according to him. Price is $17,000, solid second level, possibly 3rd, and he is 15 yo. 
really nice horse…
Well I can’t tell you whether to buy this horse or not but I can tell you that egg size is not a particularly big melanoma. Especially for a 15 year old grey horse. and the tail is a pretty good place to have one.
I have plenty of melanoma experience and none of the horses I’ve dealt with passed on because of melanoma. My personal horse’s melanomas showed up by age 7 and he died at 24. by 15 he had several larger than egg sized. He died of something totally unrelated.
It’s a matter of risk, ask your vet what he thinks.
This is a question for the vet. I will tell you that I bought a 14 yr old Lusitano w/ a bunch of them. My vet, and I believe many, will tell you they aren’t likely to do the horse in any more than anything else.
Good luck, I love my lusi more than pretty much any horse I’ve ever had!
Melanomas are a crapshoot. Just depends on how willing you are to risk it.
I’ve seen horses live for years with them (knew a mare that kept having foals even after needing a permanent tracheostomy because melanomas had blocked her windpipe), but also knew a horse that dropped dead because of an internal melanoma in his chest bigger than his heart. Had no external tumors.
I won’t even look at grey horses when buying. I just don’t want to deal with the possibility. Just a personal quirk.
I would use the melanoma as negotiating leverage for price. A 15 yr old gelding is starting to show age. His training is valuable, but he has a limited working lifetime. The $17k price might be appropriate for a no-blemish 7-yr old with a nice career ahead. I would offer $10k.
And please don’t say I’m insulting the seller. Anyone who sells horses better have a thick skin.
[QUOTE=yaya;8551524]
Melanomas are a crapshoot. Just depends on how willing you are to risk it.
I’ve seen horses live for years with them (knew a mare that kept having foals even after needing a permanent tracheostomy because melanomas had blocked her windpipe), but also knew a horse that dropped dead because of an internal melanoma in his chest bigger than his heart. Had no external tumors.
I won’t even look at grey horses when buying. I just don’t want to deal with the possibility. Just a personal quirk.[/QUOTE]
agreed… my personal experience has been if you can see it on the outside, there’s a lot more on the inside – iceberg deal. one of the reasons i don’t love greys… known more than a few with melanomas pop up around the tail and be fine and then i’ve known many more who did have melanomas in the tail that ended up dying unexpectedly or needing to be euthanized because of melanomas elsewhere.
I have owned around 15 grey horses over the years. Never had an issue with melanomas until the last one. The ordeal I went through with her has made me decide to never buy another grey horse ever.
However, in the ten years since I lost that fabulous grey mare, there are now new treatments. Like an antivirus injection.
Check with your vet or other vets who have experience with this new injection and then make your decision.
I have never been ‘color blind’ but it still hurts to think what we went through.
I agree with most of the above and will only add I have heard the same advice that this sounds like a small and insignificant melanoma. The ones you need to be worried about are more likely internal and maybe located around the rectum. Funny enough the only horse I knew with melanoma in the rectal colan area was a Bay so you grey avoiders are not off the hook 
it happens in other colores too. I just had a conversation with the owner of a 15yr old Grey Andy stallion with the same description small melanomas (egg size) on his tail he’s had them a number of years they are not concerning per her vet and he’s going to go Grand Prix this year 
he’s never been lame and only just in January had a stifle injection he started to be a little uneven in some of the collected work.
You have to decide how much you really like the horse and how safe you want to be. Honestly I think its probably a non issue but you have to think that and I think it would be fine to try to negotiate a lower price. I think 10K is a bit low depending on where you live, the quality of the horse. I would offer in the 12-15K range.
I’ve owned a grey TB, grey Andi and a grey Luso. None of them developed melanomas. Just sold the 15 yr old Luso for a LOT more than your prospect, though he has a lot more training. 15 yrs is not old for an Iberian horse that has been trained and developed correctly. My horse passed the sales PPE with flying colors and vet asked if the horse was 9. When I said he was 15 vet could not believe it - he’s been a vet for 40 years and is pretty good at assessing age within a few years. My horse was vetted at an Equine Hospital last year before I put him on the market to see if he would flex or X-ray any issues. None and no maintenance needed at this point. My trainer has several Lusos still schooling (not showing) the GP movements in their mid-20s. I see my Luso giving his new owner at least 10 more years of good schooling and showing her the ropes.
I would not see this single melanoma at 15 yrs as being much of a negotiation point. Maybe a little…
Some other things to consider:
- You may have trouble getting insurance
- Make sure that your vet checks over the whole horse very carefully, including an internal exam of his eyes. They can pop up anywhere there’s pigment, including the cornea.
And, just to set the record straight, the new injection isn’t an anti-virus. Instead, it stimulates the horse’s immune system to attack a substance found only in the melanoma. Some of the melanomas disappear, others stabilize. Works great on some horses, does not show an effect on others.
I have a horse with melanomas which are well-controlled with Oncept (the drug above). Would I buy another gray? There are a lot more options now for treating melanomas than there have been in the past. But, you always run the risk that those options won’t work on a particular horse. I wouldn’t do it again except for a very very special horse and knowing exactly what I might be in for.
This article costs about $35 to download if you want to know everything there is to know about melanomas:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749073913000588
Good luck!
I personally would pass on any grey. The stats are ridiculously high, something like 80% of greys will develop melanoma (Arabians and Andalusians are among the highest incidence) .The grey horse I know a TB has several on the side, flank and girth areas. Some recede, some need to be removed. They at times open and ooze and it’s just unpleasant for both owner and horse. If you decide to move forward with this horse have a good understanding of what the risks are and if need be what the associated veterinary costs would be if the melanoma changes particularly if insurance won’t cover it.
I have a very similar Andalusian…much larger melanomas and a bit more training. He’s well, strong and a perfect gentleman. I would not hesitate to buy him again. If the horse suits you, go for it. Every day is a gift no matter what baggage they come with
I know a grey mare (unsure of her breeding) that has melanomas all over. She has some in her neck that you can’t see, but they affect her windpipe and she can’t work in any type of frame anymore.
We’ll…if only one isolated melanoma (at least visible)…what about having current owner remove it? What does it do when his tail is active swishing flies? They can open and ooze black goo. The Iberian horses have a tail that is set very ‘tight’ to the body and that can cause friction and issues. It is something I would visit with the vet. I see no reason to leave them there to get that big.
I bought a coming 2 yo that had one. It was rather flat but started to grow somewhat rapidly when she started swishing at flies. It turned into a black goopy macerated mess. I had it removed and it never recurred (very easy surgery with sedation and local). She is now 14 and has 3 more small pencil eraser sized ones under her tail that I am watching. She also has a similar sized one on the inside of each thigh. I will not let them get big…they will be removed when they get about kidney bean sized. An awful lot of vets say to leave them alone but many more specialzied vets say to get rid of them when small before they can cause problems…either mechanical or invasive.
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/21996/dont-ignore-melanomas
I’m with the crowd that will not be buying another gray horse. I wouldn’t have bought this one had I found it…melanoma in a coming 2 y.o.! I was at the vet check for my mare and we all missed it…owner, vet and myself. To find it, you had to pull her tail up and toward her head to find it clear at the very origin of her tail dock, close to the body. I found it by feel about 3 months after I bought her.
I do a regular scan about every 3-4 months in the hopes of catching any problems early.
Good luck.
Susan
[QUOTE=Kyrabee;8552049]
We’ll…if only one isolated melanoma (at least visible)…what about having current owner remove it? What does it do when his tail is active swishing flies? They can open and ooze black goo. The Iberian horses have a tail that is set very ‘tight’ to the body and that can cause friction and issues. It is something I would visit with the vet. I see no reason to leave them there to get that big.
I bought a coming 2 yo that had one. It was rather flat but started to grow somewhat rapidly when she started swishing at flies. It turned into a black goopy macerated mess. I had it removed and it never recurred (very easy surgery with sedation and local). She is now 14 and has 3 more small pencil eraser sized ones under her tail that I am watching. She also has a similar sized one on the inside of each thigh. I will not let them get big…they will be removed when they get about kidney bean sized. An awful lot of vets say to leave them alone but many more specialzied vets say to get rid of them when small before they can cause problems…either mechanical or invasive.
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/21996/dont-ignore-melanomas
I’m with the crowd that will not be buying another gray horse. I wouldn’t have bought this one had I found it…melanoma in a coming 2 y.o.! I was at the vet check for my mare and we all missed it…owner, vet and myself. To find it, you had to pull her tail up and toward her head to find it clear at the very origin of her tail dock, close to the body. I found it by feel about 3 months after I bought her.
I do a regular scan about every 3-4 months in the hopes of catching any problems early.
Good luck.
Susan[/QUOTE]
I doubt you all missed it-- it probably developed in the three months after you bought her.
Personally I would not be as concerned about a melanoma on a 15 year old. The odds are in your favor that it will not affect him significantly in the next 5 or 6 years.
Thank you so much for all of your responses. It is not an easy decision, … but all your comments were very helpful!
Hi OP
You’ve gotten lots of good advice here. Like one person said, it can be a crap shoot. Many gray horses live good long lives with a melanoma (it’s inevitable that they will get them). But I just want to share my experience to add to your decision.
My first horse was a gray anglo-arab. He was about 13 years sold when I bought him. He had multiple small melanomas on his tail, as well as on his sheath (Does your prospective horse have any on his sheath?). Over the course of the 7 years I owned him, the melanomas on his tail continued to grow and weep black goo. I had him on cimetidine (the experimental treatment for them back twenty years ago), but I don’t believe it worked.
I was told that removing any of the melanomas would only trigger more growth.
By the time he was about 22, his tail was one big continually weeping melanoma. One of the melanomas grew especially huge and started to look malignant. It was beginning to interfere with him defecating. During this time, he colicked badly and almost died. He had never colicked before. The vet said the melanomas had grown internally.
I asked a specialist if it were possible to amputate his tail, but he said there was no healthy tissue left to grow over the site. I had to make the very heartbreaking decision to put him down.
Now, I know my situation is only one of many scenarios and probably extreme. And if the horse you are looking at has only one sharply defined melanoma, it could be a very different situation than my own. But my heart was broken when this happened and because of it, I would never purchase another gray horse already presenting with a melanoma again
We had a four year old grey andalusian colt we started that already had some growths under his tail.
We had to euthanize him at five, they grew and grew and were interfering with his quality of life.
Then, my last grey ranch horse had some marble sized ones in his sheath and maybe others we didn’t know about and at 20 not one bothered him any, we had to euthanize him from an old stifle injury making it very hard for him to be comfortable.
There are some new protocols, a vaccine even, that can be tried and has been working for some horses, or so they say.
I don’t think I would buy a horse with those kinds of tumors under the tail because of that one colt years ago, but of course, in your horse, that may be completely different situation.
A vet could tell you more, if there are some internal tumors in that area already, any other they can feel somewhere else, that could make your decision more clear.
I would not buy a horse with a melanoma. For the same reason, I would not buy a gray horse, either.
My first horse was a bay mare…she developed a melanoma on the saddle area when she was around 7 years old. We had it removed, and that was the only indication of a problem for years and years. But as she got older, she developed two other smallish bumps, though they were always hair covered and never broke open and oozed like a melanoma…long story short, I lost her to colic at age 23 and the vet suspected a “fatty tumor” had wrapped around her intestine, leading to the colic. I don’t know if melanomas and fatty tumors are related, but I’m willing to believe she had many internal melanomas that had grown over the years.
So no, I would not start off with an already known cancerous growth on a horse.
[QUOTE=fuzzybee;8557471]
I would not buy a horse with a melanoma. For the same reason, I would not buy a gray horse, either.
My first horse was a bay mare…she developed a melanoma on the saddle area when she was around 7 years old. We had it removed, and that was the only indication of a problem for years and years. But as she got older, she developed two other smallish bumps, though they were always hair covered and never broke open and oozed like a melanoma…long story short, I lost her to colic at age 23 and the vet suspected a “fatty tumor” had wrapped around her intestine, leading to the colic. I don’t know if melanomas and fatty tumors are related, but I’m willing to believe she had many internal melanomas that had grown over the years.
So no, I would not start off with an already known cancerous growth on a horse.[/QUOTE]
Generally, grey horse melanomas is a different kind of cancer than others.
Fatty lipomas are also a different kind of growth than grey horse melanomas.
We too had a feral bay horse that around 8 had some tumors show up on the side of his mouth and up his face.
The vet took those out, the lab report said it was a very aggressive cancer type, that probably would come back, but it never did, we had him his long life and never again had cancer hit him.
You just never know, but the grey horse melanomas, generally there they say is there on about 80% of grey horses over 15, may never bother a horse, or take off some day and be a serious problem.
Better ask your vet to look at the horse to determine what is going on there.
