Sisco – the rest of the story…

Remember the beautiful paint gelding I posted a picture of last Thursday? I promised I’d share more information on him but I wanted to get through first. Sisco is a 20ish year old gelding that went through a local auction many years ago. He injured his head in the trailer on the way to the auction and it should have had stitches but it went untreated. He went through the auction with blood running down his face as a “no sale”. He has scar tissue from the injury between his eyes which you can see in the picture below. After the auction was over he was bought a lady named Linda and she owned him for many years. Linda says he was a wonderful trail horse that was a pleasure to ride.

We all know what the economy has been like. In early January Linda asked for help from others in placing her 3 horses – she could no longer afford to care for them. She found a home for 2 but Sisco still needed a place to go by the end of the month or he would be put down. Finding a home for Sisco would be tough because he does have an issue – about a year ago a tumor was removed from under his tail but it grew back. A mutual friend, Stacy, raised money for a vet go out to remove the tumor a couple of weeks ago and a biopsy was done. Sisco came here and a few days later the biopsy came back – it was squamous cell carcinoma. I did research and found an article that Dawn (Horse and Man) had published in December 2010 ( http://horseandman.com/medical/cisplatin-beads-to-cure-squamous-cell-carcinoma-in-horses-a-happy-ending-for-aponi/ ). The picture in the article looked like Sisco’s tumor site (after it was removed) and it was about the same size. I spoke with Dr. Porter about Sisco and yesterday he came out and assessed the situation and felt Sisco would have a 50/50 chance if treated with cisplatin. Other than this issue Sisco is a happy and healthy horse with a positive attitude.

Here is what Dr. Porter started with. A lump under the skin next to the area that had been cut off last week was found but Dr. Porter thinks it may be scar tissue from when the tumor was cut off last year.

Once Sisco was down Dr. Porter was able to inject the drug where it needed to be.

Up but still a bit groggy.

In addition to the injections we will start applying a topical chemotherapy cream to the area on Friday. Dr. Porter wants to assess it again in 6 weeks. He feels another treatment may be necessary but only time will tell. He has treated other horses in this manner with success. So, Sisco is doing well and has some healing to do. Knowing where we are now, and how we intend to proceed, we need to ask for help with Sisco’s treatment and care expenses. He’s an otherwise healthy horse and you’d never guess his age – he’s bright and friendly. We’d like to ask for prayers for Sisco. And if anyone would like to help with his expenses it would be greatly appreciated. Donations are tax deductible and no amount is too small. Our PayPal address is theresa@beautysequinerescue.org and a link to our “Donate” page is https://www.bhfer.org/oldsite/donate.html.

God bless and thank you all for your continued support! Oh – Sisco will have his own Facebook page by tomorrow where updates will also be posted.

Sincerely,
Theresa
Beauty’s Haven Farm & Equine Rescue, Inc.
A 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization
Website: www.bhfer.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bhfer.tb