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The Lowdown On Lipomas And Surgery Survival

Colic is a broad term that is often used to indicate any type of abdominal pain, but veterinarians can often determine — or at least narrow down — what is causing the abdominal issue. One common cause of colic, particularly in older equines, is a strangulating lipoma.

A strangulating lipoma is a benign, fatty tumor on a stalk that can wrap around and strangulate a section of small intestine. There are no good markers to denote a horse that may be at risk of a lipoma other than advancing age. The only repair for this type of colic is surgery.

When the veterinarian has the horse on the table, he or she will prophylactically remove all of the lipomas found in the small intestine and small colon to prevent strangulation in the future. Older horses tend to be more stoic so may not show the intense pain they are in. For this reason, some strangulating lipomas are missed during vet exams.

It's imperative that if a horse is suspected to have a strangulating lipoma that he is sent directly to an equine hospital equipped to handle surgery. The idea that older horses don't handle colic surgery and anesthesia well is a myth, according to EQUUS magazine. Older horses have as good of a chance of survival after colic surgery as younger horses.

Keep An Eye Out: Three Common Equine Cancers

Though cancer is less common in horses than in humans, it's still possible for equines to develop various forms of the deadly disease. Because horses are so large, it can be difficult to actually locate the cancer that is affecting the horse. The most obvious signs of equine cancer are typically scaly areas of hair loss, growing and changing lumps, and swollen lymph nodes, but cancer can also take on other forms.

At its most basic, cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. The three main types of cancer found in horses include:

Melanomas. Melanoma is the type of cancer most people visualize when they think of cancer in horses. This cancer causes skin tumors; it's estimated that nearly 80 percent of grey horses over the age of 12 will develop melanomas around the tail, perineum, sheath, eyelids or mouth. Once found, melanomas should be removed when they're still small; this is often done by laser surgery.
Sarcoids. Although a benign cancer, sarcoids can spread rapidly. There are various different forms of this cancer, each with a characteristic appearance. To add to the trickiness of the disease, individual sarcoids can change forms. Though the growth rate and number of tumors per horse can vary, the tumors tend to grow in size and multiply over time.
Sarcoids can be found nearly anywhere on the horse, but the location of some tumors make them more-difficult to treat. Treatment may include chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. Sarcoids should be treated early; the bigger the sarcoids become, the harder they are to treat. Once a horse has developed a sarcoid, it is prone to developing more, even if they are removed.
Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Squamous Cell Carcinoma generally affects horse's eyes, eyelids and penis. Though slow growing, this cancer is invasive and can spread internally. Treatment generally includes surgery, radiation or chemotherapy; early diagnosis and treatment is key. Older geldings are more prone to the penile form of this cancer; regular sheath inspection can help locate lesions before they become extensive.

Specific Plants Show Promise In Reducing Equine Tumors

Equine sarcoids are the most prevalent skin tumors in horses, followed by malignant melanomas. Currently, there are minimal therapies available that locally target either tumor.

Drs. Lisa Annabel Weber, Anne Funtan, Reinhard Paschke, Julien Delarocque, Jutta Kalbitz, Jessica Meißner, Karsten Feige, Manfred Kietzmann and Jessika-Maximiliane Cavalleri created a study to determine if acid derived from some plants would kill the cancer cells.

They determined that flowering quince, white birch, rosemary and members of the persimmon family can be used to make an acid that kills cancer cells by directly effecting their mitochondria.

Betulinic acid occurs when betulin is oxidized; the researchers created a study to see if botulin and betulinic acid worked as a topical treatment possibility against sarcoids and melanomas. After being treated for 48 hours, the number of necrotic cells was less than 2 percent in both melanoma and sarcoid cells.

They determined that both botulin and betulinic acid inhibited the growth of sarcoid and melanoma cells in a lab setting. They recommend that additional studies be done in live horses to fully assess the anti-tumor effects of topically applied acid. Treatment regimens including short application intervals for long lengths of time could make the acid more concentrated and effective.

Read the full study here.

After ‘Tough’ Year, Kentucky Downs Meet Comes At A Good Time For Trainer Joe Sharp

The RUNHAPPY Meet at Kentucky Downs couldn't come soon enough for Joe Sharp.

The trainer has always done well at the all-grass meet. That includes winning at Kentucky Downs with the first starter after opening his own stable in 2014, with Holiday Drama ridden by Sharp's wife, Rosie Napravnik. He has won at least one race every Kentucky Downs meet since. Last year Sharp earned a share of the training title with Wesley Ward and Ian Wilkes at four wins apiece. That ended the run of four straight Kentucky Downs meet titles for Sharp's former boss, the track's all-time win leader Mike Maker.

Sharp has Midnight Tea Time and Hierarchy entered in Wednesday's $300,000 Tapit Stakes for horses who haven't won a stakes in 2020. Hierarchy was cross-entered in Saturday's $1 million Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup, one of five stakes on the showcase Calumet Farm Day card. Sharp also entered the stakes-winner Quebec in the $500,000, Grade 3 Real Solution Ladies Sprint and Fast Boat in the $700,000, Grade 3 RUNHAPPY Turf Sprint among his five entries Saturday. Fast Boat needs two scratches to run in the overfilled RUNHAPPY Turf Sprint, whose winner receives a fees-paid spot in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1) with the six-furlong stakes being a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series' “Win And You're In” race.

“Kentucky Downs has been a track that's been really good to us over the years,” Sharp said. “Being based here in Kentucky, you know what kind of horses to look for, what kind of distances to target over there.

“I was telling my wife, we can make our whole year this month. In a normal year, it's a really, really fun place to go to the races. You can bring the family and enjoy it. It's real casual. That's one of my favorite parts about it. I was saying my favorite day of the year is when they take entries for opening day at Kentucky Downs. The track just has a great feeling to it.”

This has been a difficult year for Sharp, to put it mildly. He had to undergo surgeries June 4 and July 24 connected to a brain tumor, with a procedure in between to insert a lumbar drain. The good news was that the tumor, known as an acoustic neuroma, was non-cancerous. The bad news was that in order to remove it, the surgeons also had to remove auditory nerves that had wrapped around it, rendering him deaf in his right ear.

Because the tumor was benign and he knew he was going to lose his hearing in an ear, Sharp said he delayed surgery for a year. Amid that, he had a rash of horses at Churchill Downs last fall and the Fair Grounds disqualified for testing over the limit for the dewormer Levamisole.

“It just keeps coming this year, for sure,” Sharp said. “But we're tough…. We're going on and doing our thing. We've always had a good reputation prior to that. It was just unlucky. I think if I had to guess after talking to veterinarians and specialists that most likely the horses were recontaminating the stalls. That's why it's carried on. There's no other explanation.”

Sharp said he almost had his surgery last November “but I chickened out… There's never a good time for that.

“I'd never even broken a bone,” said the 35-year-old former jockey, who until being grounded by the surgeries got on many of his horses in morning training. “So I've been very lucky. That being said, I'm not the best patient ever because I wasn't used to that. I've never been unfit since I was 16. I couldn't lift over 10 pounds for 90 days and then when I had my second surgery, that started over again. So like the kids, the barn, I can't bend down. That was the toughest part.”

One of Sharp's four wins last year at Kentucky Downs came with a maiden called Art Collector. Unfortunately for Sharp, one of his Levamisole disqualifications came in a subsequent Churchill Downs allowance race in which Art Collector finished first by 7 1/2 lengths. Owner Bruce Lunsford, who had sent Art Collector to trainer Tommy Drury to bring back off a layoff, opted to keep the colt with Drury. They are 4 for 4 since, including winning Keeneland's Grade 2 Toyota Blue Grass and the $200,000 Ellis Park Derby. After missing the Derby with a minor but untimely foot issue, Art Collector is being pointed for the Oct. 3 Preakness Stakes.

Sharp said he continues to have a good relationship with Lunsford and harbors no hard feelings about losing Art Collector. With his surgeries, he noted it would have been difficult to have a horse on the delayed Kentucky Derby trail anyway.

Mostly, Sharp is grateful just to be back at the track, returning a little more than two weeks ago. Midnight Tea Time got the scratch he needed to get into Wednesday's Tapit off the also-eligible list. In his last start he was second by a neck in a third-level allowance race won by He's No Lemon, an unusual result where both horses in the exacta are out of the same mare, It's Tea Time. (As an aside, He's No Lemon is entered in the Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup.) Midnight Tea Time won a second-level allowance race at Kentucky Downs last year by a nose over Combatant, who went on to win the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap.

Sharp said that a final decision will be made with owner Carl Moore but that they believe the Kentucky Turf Cup's 1 1/2-mile distance will suit Hierarchy. Hierarchy was a good second in the Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup won by Factor This, who then was second in last Saturday's Grade 1 Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic at Churchill Downs.

“He's a horse we've always wanted to try going that far,” Sharp said. “He ran really big going a mile and a quarter against Factor This, got a really big (handicapping) number. There are limited opportunities to find a race going a mile and a half. If he fires and runs his last two numbers back, he's very competitive with these horses. Obviously Zulu Alpha is in top form right now. Arklow's form isn't what it was last year at this time, but he's still consistent. Honestly I think it comes down to what distance is going to suit him better, because the Tapit came up pretty tough as well.”

Sharp believes firmer turf will help Quebec, a $105,000 purchase at Keeneland's November sale last fall, in the Ladies Sprint.

“She ran some really good races at Lone Star for us,” Sharp said of a pair of seconds before Quebec finished seventh in the Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf. “The day we ran her at Ellis Park, it was boggy. She's a California horse. They like to hear their feet rattle. So we're going to cut her back in distance to 6 1/2 furlongs. That uphill, I think she'll really like.”

Sharp's best finish opening day was a third but he's optimistic about the rest of the meet, saying, “I think our meet will get stronger as it goes, as far as entries are concerned.”

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