Best treatment for warts?

[Scooter]

Hello lovely people

My little guy is just 7mths old and he has at least 1 wart on his back. The vet was surprised to confirm that it actually is a wart at his young age. He says to leave it for now as it's not doing any harm and you can't see it anyway with his winter coat. Come spring summer, it wil be obvious though and I'd love to have him all shiny and smooth like you guys have your minis... (Oh dear, I think I'm getting a bit obsessed...)

Has anyone here needed to treat a horse as young as this for warts and what is the best thing to do?

 

[madmax]

Castor oil daily. On the wart, that is!

 

[supaspot]

I just leave it alone and they go on their own

 

[Scooter]

Thanks @Madmax

I just leave it alone and they go on their own

Oh, that would be great

'Cause the woman with the charm for warts might look at me funny if I arrive with a mini horse!

 

[ohmt]

His young age is when they normally have them due to a weaker immune system. It's actually rare to see them when they are older (over 2-3). They will go away on their own-just let the virus run its course. Make sure he is healthy on the inside; proper nutrition, dewormed, no ulcers, etc. Proper nutrition is the biggest one as that will keep their immune system at its best.

 

[Scooter]

Thanks ohmt, we just have him since Xmas and we've added Balancer to what his previous owner was giving him so hopefully that will help. He has been dewormed too and no ulcers that I am aware of (internal or external ulcers?)...

 

[Miniv]

We've never had them on a horse's BACK, just the face. The smaller ones we would scrape off, dab with iodine, and they never came back.

Larger ones were treated with human wart remover. Apparently, once they are gone, the horse develops an immunity and that's the end of it.

 

[Carolyn R]

Is your vet positive it is a plain old juvenile wart or is it a sarcoidosis? The back is a bit of a strange location for a juvenile wart.

Unlike juvenile warts, sarcoidosis do not go away, they can stay small and lay dormant then suddenly quadruple their size in a matter of a month. When they are small, they resemble warts, circular, rough, hairless surface.

 

[Matt73]

Ditto. Weird place for warts. But if it is...just leave it. My Levi got three of the biggest, nastiest warts under his chin about 4 months ago (at around 16 months) and they're almost completely gone now

 

[disneyhorse]

I'd leave it alone. If it doesn't go away in a few months I'd have the vet reexamine it.

 

[Boss Mare]

I've never seen them on the back either.

Most of my horses I purchased as weanlings and a few of them got warts on their muzzle 12-18 months of age. I would pluck off the smaller ones and leave the bigger more attatched ones. It didn't seem like it took too long for them to go away.

Give it a few months and have it rechecked. It could be another type of wart looking growth.

 

[Carolyn R]

Just an FYI, I wouldn't poke and pick at it, if it is a sarcoidosis, they tend to get "peeved" off when agitated, and begin to rapidly increase in size. A rather large area in comparison to the growth must be removed if it is a sarcoid in order to encapsulate it and remove the surrounding edged of tissue. Typically the area is cut like a foot ball shape, easier to pull together and suture, not to mention, circular wounds don't seem to heal as quickly. If there is an inclination that it is in fact growing and not going away, it is best to have it removed while it is tiny. My gypsy vanner mare came with two tiny mole like growths, tiny, one on her throat latch and the other in the arm pit of her front leg. It was tiny, maybe the size of the letter O in this message. The one on her throat latch blew up to the size of a cocoa puff ( as in the cereal) in a month or twos time. Had it removed, labeled it as a warty growth. The second one didn't blow up until late summer/ early fall. Had it removed and biopsied, assumed, due to the nature of it getting agrivated and enlarging so quickly, that it was a sarcoid. Indeed it tested positive. Haven't found any others and believe they were most likely due to fly bites that were infected with the virus from where she was purchased from. Hopefully it is the end of it and they were isolated and she does not now carry the predisposition to developed them.

 

[Scooter]

The vet has to come back in a couple of weeks to do a vaccine booster so I'll get him to take another look at it...

Thanks for all the good advice.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Ditto what they said- don't pick it, leave it alone, it it has not gone, or if it has changed shape or size (take a photo of two) get the Vet to take a biopsy. IT is a weird place to have a wart, but I have seen stranger things, so don't worry too much!

 

[chandab]

My half-Arab gelding had a large pea-size wart-like growth on the inside of one of his hocks, I don't recall when I first saw it, but I bet he had it for close to half his life (I lost him at 27 years old). I had the vet look at, and in this particular case, he said to leave it alone and just watch it to see if it changes in size and how rapidly it changes in size. I never noticed much changes in it ever; and it didn't appear to bother him. Although, I think I'd keep a closer eye on a growth on a horses back, as it has more potential to interfer with tack, than one on the hock. Definitely something to have the vet evaluate and have him/her determine your course of action.

 

[Carolyn R]

The vet has to come back in a couple of weeks to do a vaccine booster so I'll get him to take another look at it...

Thanks for all the good advice.

Don't worry if it is a sarcoid, Despite what you see when researching sarcoids, if caught early and removed entirely, life goes on uninterrupted. The one that was cocoa puff (size of a large green pea, for those overseas, not familiar with cocoa puffs

) had a football shaped piece of skin removed that was about an inch across from tip to tip. My vet was careful to take a large enough area so she did not leave any behind, cutting into it and leaving a portion behind would only further aggravate it and cause it to spread.

Oddly enough, the first one that was removed, that was not sent in for biopsy, the vet cut open to examine it. It was actually interesting to see the different layers of skin, and the thicker skin that draft breeds have in comparison to other breeds, as well as seeing what the inside of the growth looked like. I love that my vet(s) at the clinic use different situations as a learning experience for themselves as well as clients that are wanting to learn more.

 

[Scooter]

Thanks Carolyn

I have the bad habit of treating my animals like my children and felt sick to the stomach when I read your post and of course (as you suspected) googled sarcoids straight away - I need to toughen up!

 

[disneyhorse]

Our vets have always injected the sarcoids... They went away. My vet always warns that "the area may swell like a dinner plate first" but so far never seemed to happen. The only place my vet won't treat are sarcoids on the ears... He feels that it tends to make horses ear shy. I've also burned them off with cream... Forgetting the drug name at tfe moment... But only occasionally cuts them out... Just depends on the location. The surgically removed ones heal up just fine too...