Our old vet decades ago used to say grey was not a color, it was a disease. 
Oncept is now working on enough horses to be worth taking a chance.
Good luck to all those that try and, please, let us know how it goes.
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Best of luck to you all, MoonWitch! Maybe we need to start a “lumpy grey horse support thread” 
Keep us updated!!
Quick update re everything. UC Davis does not think she is a candidate for the trial, however this oncologist would like to see her in person and assess/ultrasound the large head mass. She seems to think they would be able to safely inject it with the cisplatin concoction. Dr. Burns at Ohio State has been very helpful as well, and has mentioned that there may be a small possibility of said head bump being a cyst — so, an ultrasound is warranted, in any event. I think we are going to pursue this.
Rani otherwise has been doing very well. She’s been trimmed by a reputable farrier who is confident he can get her feet back in balance; she’s worn a surcingle for the first time and didn’t bat an eye at the girth; she still flinches slightly when the line or flag touches her hinds but then calmly accepts it; and she met a tarp for the first time a few days ago, which she thought was odd at first but handled in fine form.
She is “looky” but not spooky, and if you take time to let her check something out it quickly becomes a nonissue. I hand walk her around when I can, showing her everything and narrating as we go. She is excited for our strolls but never jigs or tries
to fly around me. Now that she out of QT, she has been moved to a busier part of the barn (which she enjoys) and gets turnout with a shy little half arab buddy.
I love this horse. Feeling hopeful about the UC Davis trip in our future.
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Thanks for the update! What a smart and pretty girl you have. I’m so glad you took a chance on her. 
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She is so beautiful! Just as an update, the vet checked my boy last week and still just the one melanoma and it hasn’t grown or changed. So, to summarize: surgery last August to remove about 16 melanomas on his sheath and under his tail. Checked this spring and had about 4-6 new ones on his sheath. Started Oncept, finished it June 30. At that point, had one small melanoma, which is still there and hasn’t appeared to have changed. Compared to frequent surgeries, I call that a success. Yay!
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What a pretty girl
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@iberianfan that is amazing news!!! Congrats!! I look forward to hearing more updates on your amazing boy.
This last month has been a ringer with someone in our household diagnosed with a terminal illness, and a lot of other bull cookies besides. I did find a local source of Oncept through an old vet of ours whom I had believed to be retired. The plan is/was to go ahead with that and down the road – if needed – use UC Davis for concurrent injections of cisplatin.
However, Rani has not been doing well and is being hauled to the equine clinic today. For one, she has been in a constant heat for over three weeks now, with no ramping down, and has been experiencing unpredictable bouts ofabdominal sensitivity. We were going to start her on an ulcer med and get her scoped. However, yesterday her legs were buckling and she was urinating all over herself/kicking out while being walked on a lunge with the saddle on (maybe her 10th time wearing a saddle or so). She apparently even fell over at one point and was making odd noises. This has not happened before and totally shocked everyone present. I was personally not there for this but the barn management plus my riding instructor witnessed it, and I was able to talk on the phone with the latter and get her opinion.
Rani has been mildly sensitive off and on with her stomach, but nothing like yesterday. The sensitivity itself is very unpredictable…the day before yesterday she behaved completely normally, was saddled in the cross ties and did her ground driving lesson well. Then, bam. Extreme distress seemingly out of nowhere. Her personality has also changed a bit. The hospital will investigate with an ultrasound to start. The poor girl seems like she is in a lot of pain.
Pic from a pleasant evening with her a bit ago.
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I am so sorry to hear this. Sending big jingles that VMTH will least make her comfortable, as well as making a diagnosis.
I do not wish to make light of this at all, but I sometimes feel they get ill to distract us from our human problems. Very sorry about your household illness.
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Thank you. They are a distraction, for better or for worse! We also believe the lump on her head has grown significantly since July, and recently she has been tilting her head/smacking herself frequently in a way that makes me wonder about her vision in that eye. 
Another thing for the vet to check out.
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Best of luck for both of you. You are stronger than me. I would not have gotten involved because I hate fighting a battle with a deadly disease. Although I was sorely tempted to take a friend’s horse with eye cancer- that was a very nice horse. My friend finally had the eye removed and hopefully she stays cancer free.
Fingers crossed for a positive outcome.
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This sounds so scary, can’t imagine what it’s like living it. Here’s to getting answers and being able to take the right actions with the right info.
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Thanks everyone. Aggravatingly we have zero answers. She wouldn’t let anyone get close to her with a needle, so no blood drawn and no sedation for ultrasounds. I was not there to see it (prior commitment I could not get out of), but her trainer said she was getting very worked up and none of the staff wanted to risk themselves (understandable). I’m not sure why a twitch wasnt used, but I am not a vet. Apparently she took 40 minutes to be stuck and sedated with her surgery last month — they said she was a bit flighty about needles but no one told me exactly how much!
So…she was returned to the barn with regumate and another drug to help some right sided stiffness/soreness the vet noticed (she is reluctant to do carrot stretches on that side, so not new info). Game-plan for now is to see if the regumate helps these weird issues at all. I am not convinced her cycle is the culprit but, could be? Missed the vet’s call and will hopefully get to talk to her tomorrow. Can’t say any of us are particularly happy right now and I’m not quite sure what to think.
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Lovely sensitive girl! For the needles- just like getting her used to a rope or a tarp- get her used to the idea of having needle and syringe near her. To be fair- it can be frightening and predatory to have a random stranger walk up, grab the the jugular and poke around. Add in to your routine the movements and simulate a blood draw- even if you start with a pen - and then work up to a capped needle and syringe. Have your trainer and friends help simulate it too- so she gets used to random people doing it. Fear Free Equine does a section on how to train needle shy horses to be more relaxed about the process. Would she allow you to premed her with Dormosedan gel (your vet would need to prescribe) before a visit? It’s a sublingual gel that you would give 45m-1hr prior to the visit that would help sedate her. May be worth asking about some pre visit pharmaceuticals.
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@Ryde_XC thank you, I’ve been researching ways to start working with her on her needle phobia. I will ask about the Dormosedan gel!
She has been prescribed gastrogard, sucralfate, and methocarbamol alongside the regumate for a 30 day trial. Two of the meds need to be ground up and given orally…I might bake some horse cookies and add these in to them for ease of delivery. Hand-walking and light exercise encouraged. Going to read up on the Fear Free Equine needle training too.
The Oncept is going to have to wait until October or November, unfortunately. I want to see if we can address these more immediate issues first and get her more comfortable. 
Maybe we took things a little too fast with her, and this is all just a culmination of her personality and the stress of a new environment and routine.
Sucralfate tablets dissolve really fast in a small amount of water and don’t taste like much. Also have never had a problem with a horse eating methocarbamol. You can get those down easily with a little bit of wet food.
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Good to know that they don’t taste too horrid, the barn is only 15 mins down the road but I was stressing a bit with how to make sure she will be getting all of these.
This is EXACTLY how I got two of my horses. They were unwanted and had significant enough problems that a good outcome was very unlikely (and owners who would have sent to auction rather than do the right thing. But they fund me and I found them and it was an instant connection. Both turned out to be just amazing partners and improved my life.
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Can they put a set of blinkers on her ? Blinker hood over her halter.
or try the right side with hand over that right eye ?
^ I’ve had success with ^ on two of horses who are hot & dangerous when they were aware needles were ‘in the area’ coupled with the smell of vets.
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Haha. We have another “throw away” too, not that Rani is/was one but she is complicated enough (and not only regarding the melanomas apparently) that her future would be uncertain in the wrong hands.
Poor girl has a reputation now at the barn. She is turned out alone because she started beating up on the demure little mare who was in there with her and chasing her away from the water, and yet she paces frantically and is intensely interested with her neighbors (as long as they dont get too close). Some days she is mellow and ho-hum and then other days she tries to kick you if you so much as brush a finger near her belly.
I believe she must be in pain and the vet who saw her agrees that an ultrasound of the reproductive organs at least is warranted. I’m still frustrated this wasn’t done yesterday, we should’ve held off until I could’ve gone and insisted in person but I was so alarmed by what had happened on Wednesday that I didn’t want to wait.
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For the needle shy horse, you can put them in a slant load trailer facing backwards- it works like stocks.
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I agree with @BUSY about the blinkers. My riding teacher has this Arabian gelding who, when he saw something unusual out of the back corner of his eyes would bolt without warning, and the D’yon blinkers on his bridle made his a MUCH safer horse to ride. They may well work to make handling your poor mare much safer too.
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