Does anyone on here have any experience with dealing with skin cancer on their horse, specifically paints with light/pink skin? I’ve found a small growth under my mare’s tail that looks scarily similar to a lot of the pictures of squamous cell carcinoma I’ve seen on horses so I’m freaking out - the vet will be coming out next week but until then I have a million questions…what would treatment be like and how much would it cost? What is the success rate of said treatment and recovery time? Any personal experience would be appreciated.
My paint gelding has had multiple bouts of SCC in both eyes. He’s had surgery twice, and the 3rd time was caught very early and resolved with just cryotherapy (essentially freezing it to kill the cells) done over the spot.
You are right to be vigilant and you may want to make friends with a specialist at an equine clinic if you have one near you. I take my gelding to see the ophthalmologists at Tufts every year for a thorough checkup, much more in depth than any vet would be able to do in a farm call. Few hundred dollars but worth every penny. Surgery is expensive, in the thousands, but if SCCs are caught very early it is much easier and cheaper to treat.
Good luck!! Hopefully it’s not serious for your guy. Keep us posted.
You may also want to consider some sort of covering for the pink skin areas, a fly sheet or something. My gelding wears a special UV protective fly mask year round now, it definitely helps.
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Our old paint had one such SCC growth in his sheath.
It grew very fast, from little dot to tennis ball sized in three weeks, when our vet operated and took it out.
He implanted cisplatin beads, it came back once several months later, operation and chemo was repeated and it didn’t come back after that.
Horse was fine, stayed a couple days at the hospital and never had any trouble, never quit eating, acted like nothing had happened.
Don’t remember the cost, but it was not much at all.
We were expecting a bigger bill.
I would not wait too long if it is SCC, it can grow in a hurry.
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Thank you for your answers! This prompted me to move my appointment up so the vet is coming out tomorrow morning to biopsy. Fingers Crossed 
If it is a grey horse melanoma, you may ask your vet if it is appropriate to start her on Oncept.
That seems to arrest those on their tracks and are especially effective when caught early and the tumors are small.
Shots are very costly, four shots one every two weeks or so.
Then if it works one every six months or so.
If it keeps working once a year.
Each shot costs about $700.
Not all vets are certified to give those, it uses a certain special gun, etc.
Generally those melanomas start as a bump, don’t look like SCC with a rough outside, but never say never, see what the lab report tells you.
Don’t worry until you know what you have there, then you can decide what to do next.
Mine has a melanoma, we got some of it removed but given the spot couldn’t get it all. We give Oncept, did the loading dose and then every six months. Depending on where in San Diego you are San Louis Rey equine hospital is the only place within reasonable distance that’ll give it. We trailer there when needed.
I’m in North County but I have West Coast Equine coming out since my trainer recommended them - its on pink skin so if anything according to the vet its more likely that it would be SCC so hopefully I wont have to go that route but labs will tell.
I have a tovero mare who had her eye removed Wednesday due to SCC. She also had a tumor near her anus removed.
If it makes you feel any better; I had the tumor near her anus removed when I bought her in 2016. She was 18 at that time, I bought her without a vet check because she was a pasture companion/broodmare anyway. Live and learn. Anyway - we biopsied and it was confirmed SCC. In the last three years, she’s successfully had two foals and was left open last year to take a bit of a break. The tumor has come back, but we just removed it again.
I’m sure she’s full of internal tumors since they’re essentially on both “ends”. :lol: BUT, I work with one of the best vets in North Texas (Weems & Stephens) and they said it was worth my $1,100 bill to remove the eye this week because (and I quote), “SCC is very slow growing, and she has many years left in her where she’ll still be healthy enough to ride and breed and do really anything you want to do with her.”
Obviously, it’ll vary on a case to case basis – but I now have a 21 year old horse with one eye and cancer… and the vet feels incredibly positive about her prognosis. She’ll always have the cancer, but she’ll probably die of old age or a dumb pasture accident before SCC takes her. [ATTACH=JSON]{“alt”:“Click image for larger version Name: 38907308_10102035155928189_8312960217029541888_n.jpg Views: 4 Size: 17.8 KB ID: 10407329”,“data-align”:“center”,“data-attachmentid”:“10407329”,“data-size”:“full”,“title”:“38907308_10102035155928189_8312960217029541888_n.jpg”}[/ATTACH]
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