Mission melanoma

Mission melanoma


Melanoma, a type of skin tumor, is common to gray horses. They crop up after the horse’s gray coat has filled in, usually around 5 years of age. By the time grays are 15 years old, a staggering 80 percent of them have a melanoma.

Melanomas are usually found under a horse’s tail, on its backside or between its legs. Less commonly, they appear on the head or even inside the mouth. Wherever the site, a melanoma can become infected and bleed. Worse yet, large tumors can block nearby structures or spread to other parts of the body, eventually proving fatal.

Current treatment in horses rarely produces a cure, but anti-melanoma vaccines used in dogs with these tumors have had good results, and the effects of similar vaccines are now being studied in horses. The goal is to stop, shrink and obliterate melanomas in their tracks.

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