Sigh. We’re at the end of our second month of Xxterra treatment for a sarcoid and the sarcoid is winning still. It didn’t like the Xxterra and grew. The vet said if the second month doesn’t get rid of it, we’ll have to laser. Right now, I’m not in a position to be able to get it lasered off. Anyone have any other suggestions?
Efudex
brand of fluorouracil
topical cream 5%
Roche Labs
Have you actually inquired about the lasering?
My guy had a series of small ones on his ear, which were difficult to treat because he has ear sensitivity issues. Instead of messing around with creams and what not, we just lasered them off.
We brought him to the clinic, it took maybe 30 minutes to get them off cleanly, and it was a grand total of $120. Only $75 of that was for the lasering, the rest was pain meds.
Super easy, no fuss no muss. Half a year later and his ear looks great, not a lump or bump to be seen.
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[QUOTE=GoForAGallop;5816290]
Have you actually inquired about the lasering? [/QUOTE]
No, I didn’t ask for a price. I’ll do it right now. I guess I was just assuming it would be a lot! This one is on the upper lip area, between the mouth and nostril. I did have another vet tell me that it would be a hard place to remove because horses tend to rub the stitches out. However, this thing has become a monster and both my horse and I are tired of dealing with it!
[QUOTE=SGray;5816282]
Efudex
brand of fluorouracil
topical cream 5%
Roche Labs[/QUOTE]
Prescription, right? I’ll ask about that when I call for a quote on the lasering. Thanks!
Tons of great info here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/equine_sarcoid/
Have you tried Crest toothpaste? The original version (blue paste) is what is supposed to have worked for quite a few horses.
I got rid of my mare’s sarcoids with an herbal mixture in her feed, along with a homeopathic called Thuja Occidentalis (30C strength).
Good luck!
There are other products than “Xterra” that have the same ingredient. You can buy pure bloodroot (or whatever it is) on Ebay for much cheaper. Maybe a more concentrated formulation would work?
Good luck.
If it is large enough you can have it banded. One of my boarders horses had a large sarcoid and her father, a holistic vet, used and banding tool and a rubberband. It took about 30 days for it to fall off, but after it healed it looked great. The horse did need to be sedated to have this done, but once the rubberband was on, he was fine. It does need to be tight.
I would get Aldera. It is a cream used mainly for genital warts in humans but I have read of a lot of people having success using it instead or in replacement of Xxterra. I was fortunate enough to be able to get some “for me” to have my insurance cover it but you can also get an RX from your vet or buy it online.
I am on week 4? Not sure of Xxterra. My geldings sarcoid was big-ish but not huge like some I have seen. I have had good success and it has dried up and is really crusty and all and just yesterday finally started some sloughing. I will use the whole bottle and if it doesnt work, try the Aldera.
Never heard of the lasering before. Most of what I have read is that when you start cutting and lasering, a lot of the time it comes back even worse.
Good luck!
[QUOTE=JumpQH;5816307]
No, I didn’t ask for a price. I’ll do it right now. I guess I was just assuming it would be a lot! This one is on the upper lip area, between the mouth and nostril. I did have another vet tell me that it would be a hard place to remove because horses tend to rub the stitches out. However, this thing has become a monster and both my horse and I are tired of dealing with it![/QUOTE]
:lol: I assumed it would be a lot. My guy was out on his free lease when she gave me a call: “Yeah, so, my vet was out to look at my other horse and I had him peep at the ear, and he said that they’re definitely sarcoids and that lasering would be the best bet…I can probably help pay for it…”
At this point she’d only had him for less than a month, so of course I was like “No, no, I’ll take care of it, don’t even worry about it, schedule the appointment.” meanwhile in my head I was adding up my savings, thinking about my credit card balances, etc. I gave the vet a call just to get an idea of a quote, prepared for the worst. “Oh, yeah, about $100 give or take.” “For the whole thing…?” “Yup!” :lol:
It was definitely a relief. I’m not sure why lasering isn’t the first choice? It can be hard to get a clean border and nothing is guaranteed, but that’s basically sarcoids in general. My guy didn’t need stitches, although the inside of an ear is a very different type of area than somewhere along the nose.
Good luck!
My guy had one that came back after Xxterra and the vet then used cryosurgery (basically freezing it off). Don’t remember how long ago that was (guessing maybe 5-7 yrs)but I’ve not had a problem with him since.
My mare has a sarcoid on her muzzle that has withstood two cycles of treatment of Effudex. :no: It did get smaller and flatter after round 2 but it is still there.
I’ve had sarcoids banded…goat bands used for de-nutting. 
Also had a mare with two huge sarcoids, used the X-terra which I got from the vet. He suggested calling the vet that developed the cream. I did and we conversed with emails. He suggested altering the protocol of applying the cream. I can’t for the life of me remember how we did it but it worked and it’s been about four years with no recurrence. I can say when they were coming off it was pretty gross.
I second shopping around for a vet if you choose the laser process. Had a thyroid tumor this year, several vets quoted $2K for removal, by price shopping I was able to have it removed for $400.
Good luck.
Our stallion had a sarcoid on his ear and the vet froze it off. Two treatments and no sarcoid (and no stitches). Wasn’t horribly expensive. We tried the xxterra, but it didn’t work and the sarcoid was huge.
I used Xxterra for a sarcoid on my guys leg. Didnt think it was working, then one day when I least epected it, it fell off! Recently, a friend whos dad is a long time breeder/trainer said that they used plain old lime. Made a paste, slopped it on and wrapped the leg for a couple days and then repeat. Ive never tried it, but thought I’d pass it on.
I talked to my vet last night. I was wrong - it’s not lasering that they do (in fact, my vet doesn’t ever laser), but the freezing. On the other creams and such, he said he would really recommend the freezing instead of trying other creams. He’s had good luck with freezing, waiting a month, and then freezing again. The problem is…each freezing procedure is $250. OUCH! This sarcoid has really grown from using Xxterra on it, so I’m a little gun shy about using another cream and making it grow more without results. The way it is shaped, I wouldn’t be able to band it. Too flat to hold a band.
Thanks for all the responses! I’m going to ponder everything and then decide which way to go.
I had my mares ear and the other one lazered. She had a tiny beginning one in one ear, and a larger one in the other. Injecting the ear can make the ear leather droop, and freezing it may damage the ear also. Lazer is the way I went. Also injecting and freezing are painful during and after. The medicine they inject is thick and stings. Freezing seems like it would hard to control how much was frozen. I have had many, many warts frozen on my hands, and it hurts during and after for a long long time, and if you are not careful it can get infected. Lazer is clean.
$200 is what I paid. One time treatment, and very little after care for my horses sarcoids in her ears.
They laid her down, shaved a little bit on each ear, zapped it. She woke up, and was fine still with me touching at her ears, even as she was walking out of the padded room. She is a quiet horse, and it took a couple hours for her to wake up all the way. We put her in a stall so she could wake up fully in a safe spot. They laid her down in a padded dark air conditioned room. I can tell she liked the air conditioning alot. 
It was fine for her to wake up slowly. I got some cream from the vet, (a steriod, an anti-biotic, in destin) and put it on for 10 days, and the areas are completely furred over and the spots are gone as of today. No infection, no head shy, no flies bothered it, she didn’t act like it hurt either. This was a couple months ago.
Well worth the $200 and then no more $ or pain for her. I did handle her ears afterwards, and to this day, and she showed no discomfort. The expensive part was having her lay down. They said the horse had to be very still, and she would have no memory AT ALL of the procedure, and they were right. Lazer was $50.
I hauled her 2.5 hours each way. To me, well worth the trip to get really a vet to lazer them off. Sarcoids are very very scary. My horse is a 5 yr old, I want her around a long time. If they come back I will have them zapped again. Right now it doesn’t look like it.
Good Luck.
Ive been battling one myself. First time it litteraly cut out and injected…then it regrew in a more fiberouse manner and the vet just froze it about 2 weeks ago.
So far so good…looks like it MAY be trying to come back but Im not sure. She said it could take a couple of freezings. It is smaller in size though, so we are on the right track.
I havent gotten my bill yet, but the surgical removal and injection was only like $360 and she did A LOT of work to it that day.
Did two rounds of Xxterra on my horse’s face with no luck. Vet injected it with some chemotherapy drug and it never came back.
My vet did the cisplatin treatment, and voila, gone for over a year now.
There was no ulceration to deal with either.
Implant the beads, and the sarcoids shriveled up. It was on her muzzle.
