Orík

Story

Orík is the son of Najka and Buro — the second colt born on our farm. At birth he was only „brushed" by what later hit his younger brother Pačoin full: a blood type mismatch between the parents. Orík came through it with a weakened system — and it showed itself in sarcoids, which he is still fighting today.

We are still fighting the sarcoids today. We have managed to remove several of them through a number of operations and we back that up with courses to strengthen his immunity. And we keep searching for new routes — from dragon's blood to a Vienna veterinary university study on sarcoid immunotherapy using a viral vector.

Orík's sarcoids — the whole story

Sarcoids are the most common skin tumours in horses. They are not ordinary warts and they are not malignant — but they are incredibly stubborn. They are caused by bovine papillomavirus, a virus that belongs to cattle. In a horse it is an intruder: it cannot multiply properly in him, it only switches the skin cells over to tumour cells and then sits there. That is why they are so hard to treat. Surgery, freezing or ointment often work only for a time and the sarcoid comes back — frequently bigger than before.

How the virus got to him

With Orík we have a suspicion that is uncomfortably specific. When he was a month old we had our cows in the stable next door — and they had papilloma warts on their udders. Orík got out once, sniffed at them through the fence and they certainly touched muzzles. And later he may well have lain in bedding they had used.

It is exactly the infection scenario that the professional literature gives as a theoretical possibility — direct contact with cattle and a contaminated environment. It is not certain: warts on cows' udders can also be caused by other types of the virus that do not produce sarcoids. But it makes sense.

And the timing was the worst possible. A month-old foal still has an immature immune system, and Orík was weakened on top of that — at birth he was „brushed" by the same blood type mismatch between the parents that killed his younger brother Pačo . Orík came through it, but anaemic and with no strength. He met the virus in exactly the window when he had no way of defending himself.

Where he has them

Large ones in the area of the penis and on it. A few smaller ones on a hind thigh. One by a front leg. And one near an eye.

What we have tried

Surgery. We managed to remove several sarcoids. The one on the penis has been cut away twice now — and it still comes back and grows. Today we understand why: a sarcoid has no sharp edge, cells carrying the viral DNA reach further into apparently healthy tissue than the eye can see. For surgery to work, you have to cut with a good margin around it — and on the penis there is simply no margin to take. On top of that the place never finishes healing, because it is constantly moving and rubbing. A wound that does not close means permanent irritation.

Ligation. We also tried tying a sarcoid off with a rubber band. After twenty-four hours it was almost dry.

Courses for the immune system — we still give these as support.

Aldara. An immune cream that does not kill the tumour but calls the immune system to it. One sarcoid was literally burned away by it and disappeared. It had no effect on the others.

An accident near the eye

One sarcoid he has near his eye he once scratched himself and tore in half. Something strange happened: part of it shrank — and on another part a new small sarcoid grew in the shape of a wart. It shrank and it grew at the same time. That accident taught us more than anything else and became the basis of everything we have looked into since.

Vienna

At the Veterinary University in Vienna they are developing an immunotherapy that, instead of the knife, teaches the horse's immune system to notice the sarcoid and clear it away itself. In their study even tumours that were never injected regressed — the body made itself a „portrait of the enemy" and went after it all over the body. That is exactly the route we are hoping to find for Orík.

We managed to contact them and show them Orík's case. They could not help us. But the doctor did add one piece of good news that took a weight off our hearts: Orík's sarcoids are not malignant.

Where we are today

We fight on. And Orík is a strapping nine-hundred-kilo gelding with a beautiful big neck and a magnificent frame — there is nothing missing from his body, he simply cannot get rid of something that does not belong on it. We have been down almost all the classic routes, so we opened a notebook and started looking where perhaps nobody had looked. We write about that below.

How Orík is doing

Photo gallery

Orík's sarcoids over time — from 2023 until today. We photograph them regularly so that the changes can be seen.