Ask the Vet - Sarcoids in horses 

I was a professional brewer for many years. "Spent grains" are a byproduct of the brewing process. These grains consist of mostly malted barley and occasionally some wheat. Prior to arriving at the brewery, barley is malted. This process consists of steeping the barley in warm water until it sprouts (enzymes are activated), then the barley is dried and the rootlet is knocked off. Just like sprouted grain bread has a higher nutritional value than regular bread, sprouted barley also would have a higher nutritional value. During the brewing process, much of the starch in the barley is converted to fermentable sugars in the mash, however in the spent grain byproduct, a considerable amount of sugar, protein, starch, fiber, and other nutrients still exist. I mention all this because a local farrier named Travis had a horse with 27 sarcoids that was completely sarcoid free after eating spent grains exclusively for two weeks. The horse also put on a little weight. I would encourage folks to try this out. Most small, local breweries would be happy to give you some spent grains. Fresh is best. Find out what days they are brewing and bring a couple clean 33 gallon trash cans with you to haul it away. Hopefully this will help others.

My gelding had a sarcoid growing on his cheek about a decade ago. Once noticed, my vet immediately went full charge at it lol. We aggressively used cryotherapy on it and it was very successful. My horse is now 21 years old and is still sarcoid free. Did leave a cool looking scar about the size of silver dollar though but I don’t care.

I've just bought some blood root ointment after soo many brilliant reviews. I'm going to try that before getting it banded. Been told blood root attacks the sarcoid at the root and it will fall off but we will see....

There are no contagious "viruses", so back to the drawing board!

I know getting an reply is a long shot but here goes: There’s been multiple confirmed cases of vesicular stomatitis in my area. Other than using a crap ton of fly spray and fly traps is there anything we can do to try to prevent all of my barns horses from getting sick?