Sometimes the road is rocky

So Rosie-pony has been doing quite well. We've been getting out and about as much as we can - working for around an hour each day at a weekend - well as long as the weather allowed ! We were even booked on a Strathraag (local rural riders and access group) ride mid-Dec, but it got postponed because of the extreme weather.

And then there was a small lump, which just in front of Rosie's udder. At first it just seemed like an insect bite but I kept an eye on it. Our vet's practice runs regular lectures and a recent one had been on sarcoids (by Knottenbelt himself no less !) and they had said always get lumps checked. So when it didn't go away, and actually got slightly larger - we took advantage of the vet being out for Dud's vaccinations and got him to check it. In the meantime it got slightly larger. He took pictures to send off the Liverpool.

So to cut a long story short, it's a sarcoid and Rosie had her first treatment last Wednesday. These two were taken before treatment. (I had clipped the area around the lump with trimming clippers the weekend before). There is also a much smaller lump right behind the big one that only appeared recently - that should get treated at the same time.

Pre-treatment19/12/12

Pre-treatment 19/12/12

So the second treatement was 48 hours later, and then the third 72 hours after that. This stuff is nasty and has to be applied by the vet. The surrounding area has to be protected.  She was very well behaved, with my mother (her owner) distracting the front end and me holding a hind leg back so access was easier. (For the second treatment my vet student niece did the leg-holding honours).
 
She had to stay in for a few hours after but then was allowed out. But by the evening of each treatment she was obviously feeling it a bit as she wouldn't eat her food and was banging the stable door. She was supposed to be having bute to help with the pain and swelling but normally that would just be in her food - which she wasn't eating. We tried the various tricks we had up our sleeves from getting Duds' cushings tablets in to them - but she wasn't terribly impressed with us.

There was some swelling. You'll see that in the next photo which I took immediately after the third treatment (you can see the cream).

Now we wait. What is supposed to happen is it "sloughs" and goes hard. At that point you have to resist the temptation to remove it.... and wait for it to fall off itself. We'll review with the vet in a month unless there is reason to do so before that.

In theory she can work in the meantime. In reality we have had so much rain that there isn't really anywhere to ride and she would end up with her tummy covered in mud. Plus I'd rather the swelling was down a bit.

So if you want to know more, here are some links

University of Liverpool information on sarcoids and treatment

University of Edinburgh Sarcoid Factsheet