I am fairly confident that my one horse has a sarcoid at the base of his ear. He’s young, and it was previously treated by freezing it ( not once but twice, per the vets recommendation). Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s progressing correctly in the healing phase. I am now scheduled with a different vet, to try to figure out where to go from here. I am close to nine months into this, 3 months ago, it really looked like it was going great, and now it just looks like a lumpy surface that refuses to heal. It’s in a spot where I know there isn’t much depth of the surface to work with. Any advice, articles to read, medications to look at would be great. This is new territory and although I have done a bit of research, I am open to educating myself before the next vet appt.
I’ve had good luck with xxterra.
Strange as it may sound — Crest toothpaste. Either the original formula or the cavity control formula (probably because of the fluoride).
I have gotten rid of 2 sarcoids this way. Amazing, but it works.
Twice a day, I put the toothpaste on with a toothbrush 
and then scrub it in. Within 10 days, the sarcoid is smaller. Within one month, it is all gone and never comes back (at that location).
Many years ago I found this suggestion right here on COTH. I was skeptical, but now I am a believer.
I have also had good luck with xxterra. And I read a LOT about the Crest toothpaste trick some time ago. Just google it, it’s definitely worth a shot at the very least.
This works-I’ve done it on several horses over the years.
I will definitely try the crest…it’s worth a try. Thank you
Hopefully Crest, or time, will make it heal, but if not, Immunicidin is amazing. My horse had a sarcoid that looked like he was growing a chestnut on the back of his ear. One injection into the sarcoid and it healed up and disappeared without any scarring. After one week, there was a non-oozing abscess in the middle, then about 1 month after the hard lumpy sarcoid was gone, just pink skin, by 2 months after, the hair grew back and you can’t tell he had anything. He was never contact sensitive or bothered by the healing process. Highly recommended.
Imiquimod cream causes a big local reaction but worked really well for my guy. The big sarcoid on his face was gone in 2 weeks.
Another vote for toothpaste with fluoride. It works well but best if caught early.
i had one in the inside of the ear. Used Xxterra on it. It went away but came back a year later and we retreated it with Xxterra. After the second treatment it was permanently gone. If looking up the info on xxterra, something like 20% will regrow after one treatment, but only like 2% after a second treatment. The Xxterra worked well on it on the ear.
I take him to the vet in a week, but I found another one on my older mare last week. Gah. So, I talked to a good friend who is an MD, and she said fluoride is used to treat certain skin cancers. Her hubby who is a dentist, is ordering me a high fluoride toothpaste to use. So for now I will try the toothpaste before starting anything else. I am hesitant to use anything super aggressive as it is his ear and we don’t have much area to work with.
i really look forward to getting him into this vet as he supposedly has a bit of experience with them. Of course this is the third vet to look at it and help diagnose and treat it… and it’s still not right 
Nuffink.
Her winter blanket rubbed it off one year and it hasn’t come back. (was on her chest)
I prefer to leave them be if they’re not in an area irritated by tack.
I noticed my Standardbred gelding had what looked to be a sarcoid growing up high on the inside of his right hind leg. I noticed it in Jan-Feb and kept an eye on it, it went from the size of the tip of a pencil to about a nickel in 6 months. So when the vet was here to do teeth/sheath/ vaccinations, I asked him to look - he confirmed it was a sarcoid and said he could come out and do some treatments with these little pearl things before it gets too big. Didn’t sound very expensive and figured I’d give it a shot.
But before doing so, I did some research on alternative treatments, one of which was the whole turmeric/pepper/fat thing - golden paste taken internally. I ended up buying a tub of Turmericle from Smartpak, and put the gelding on 1/2 a dose- within a week the thing was shriveling up and in 2-3 weeks some skin it was hanging off and now its gone and you can’t even tell it was there. It took about a month if I recall. Color me surprised, and now no need for that treatment.
I have since taken him off this turmeric supplement and it has not come back. I don’t know if it was coincidental or what, but for now I’ll say that worked pretty darn well!
I’ve also had great luck with xxterra. I’ve treated many horses with it and have never had one come back (knock on wood).
I had great luck using the Sarcoid Treatment Salve from Balanced Eco-Solutions.
https://www.balancedecosolutions.com/equine/equine-sarcoids/
It was not nearly as irritating as XXterra and did as good of a job. My guy had one on his sheath and I was worried about getting my faced kicked in if things got owey down there and I had to apply something irritating to it. It has been about 3 years and it has not come back.
Update…Finally was able to get my guy into the vet that has treated many skin issues a few days ago. We are fairly confident it is a sarcoid, and even though we froze it ( twice) it turned into a different type of sarcoid. The vet did not recommend testing it as to not anger it at this point. He did recommend good old crest toothpaste along with the toothbrush method of application for 30 days. At that point if it’s still going, to up the toothpaste, to a more aggressive topical. His experience has been very good with freezing, unless the sarcoid is on the ear. He was commenting on how he’s hard a horrible time with treating the ones that show up either on the ear or inside of the ear. Unfortunately cutting it off is not a good option either as there is not enough skin to close it back up. At this point he feels that between the topicals, we can get it healed up.
Fingers crossed this works, should know in 30-60 days!
Our grey mare had a rather large one on the underside of her tail. About the side of a golf ball. Vet cut it out and then allowed it to heal by second intention. So far so good!!
I have done the Crest treatment too. It worked well on a half dollar sized one near the girth area several years ago. It healed up pretty quickly and hasn’t come bak.
My vet prescribed the Imiquimod cream for a sarcoid on my donkey’s hock. It took care of the sarcoid and nothing has returned in the 2 years since treatment.
