Last friday I had to put my baby down. She was an 8 year old appaloosa and the vet said that with her breed he was pretty sure that it was cancer. I didn't realize that the appy. Breed was so touchy. Weren ' t they the Indian horses? They were also bread for the Spanish were they not? If someone could answer this it would help a lot.
RIP Chubs "Takosha" Sunray
The only cancer I know to be common among appaloosas is skin cancer associated with the effects of UV light on their sensitive pink skin, and this is often a treatable form of cancer. So you need to add more details to make sense of this. Yes, they came from Spanish stock and were bred by Native Americans to be hardy, but this doesn't really prevent heritable conditions from developing. Night blindness is an inherited condition in appaloosas, for example.
There must be more to this than what you are relating. If you know the type and location of the cancer your horse supposedly had it would help. I'm very sorry for your loss.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com Add ...... here is an article I think you will want to read ...........
http://equisearch.com/horses_care/health ...
8 years seems pretty young to have cancer bad enough to have to put them down?
I wish you would have given the symptoms and what problems she seemed to have, I would wonder how she was acting or what has been done with her to have the vet come to that conclusion?? Did you just let him put her down without knowing what was really wrong with her??
There are so many notes on here that are informative to other people, I do hope you let us know more about why she was put down. What color she was.
Yes generally they are a strong breed but I know that a lot of the colors have to do with eye problems or deafness. Night Blindness is linked to Apps. With the fewspot leapord and and the snow cap colors.
One of my school horses had very modeled skin on muzzle and around the eyes and he always had eye problems, always dripping and flies getting in them to suck the drip, eye infection lots of eye problem and it eventually turned into cancer.
The vet was "pretty sure" it was cancer?
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com What type of cancer was it?
It is very common for gray horses to get skin cancer that shows itself in the form of tumors, but this generally occurs later in life and often the horse can live many years after a diagnosis.
Have never heard of cancer being breed specific.
Hi,
I'm so sorry for your loss. I've done horse rescue (all breeds) work forever and without looking up this breed I've never heard anyone mention this is a problem with this breed. Now I do know a light colored horse is more likely to get skin cancer (under tail, exposed skin, etc).
If anything what I've heard about this breed is a female can be very moody and needs a good rider/owner but again many can be just darlings. I bet you had a darling: 0).
Some animals are just born for this to happen, just like people. I wonder why your vet thought she had cancer. Did the blood work show signs of this? Did she have tumors or patches of skin cancer showing?
I hate when vets say "I think this is why" without facts. It makes us owners wonder what we missed or could have done to prevent what happened.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com Please do not beat yourself up over this, remember Chubs for who she was and will always be in your heart and I hope in time you can open your heart up to another one that needs you since so many are in need of a good home like yours. Good luck to you.
K
Hi Angela - im really sorry to hear of your loss.
8 years old is so young - you must be gutted.
I havent heard anything like what your vet has suggested to be honest. I wouldnt have a great amount of knowledge of appaloosas, but I definately never heard anything about them to back up this theory.
I hope you'll be ok soon and maybe even find yourself a new partner
xx
