I have a 12 yr old gelding who started to have stiffness in his neck lasy July. It progressed until he could not graze or drink from a trough. An examination by a vet produced nothing. He did numerous x-rays on his neck but found no fracture and suggested equine massage. I tried that also. He had no loss of appetite, although he did lose considerable weight last winter which I have managed to reverse. A second vet poked a hard area on the side of his neck with a needle and syringe which produced no fluid or blood. After looking at the cells through a microscope his diagnosis was cancer, a malignancy in the cartlidge. That diagnosis was in April. The gelding has since improved flexibility in his neck and now grazes with some difficulty, but he can get his head down. He dappled out this fall and is carrying decent weight again. I am wondering if this mass could be a calcification of some sort and treatable. We did move him from GA to WY last year so I imagine the soil is very different and so would be the nutrient levels. I have supplemented his food with a vitamin powder for the past few months. The general oncensus seems to be for me to put him down, but I feel if this truly were cancer he would not have made it this past year and actually improved. Is there any other possibility? He has always been up to date on shots and wormings.
Thanks