I'm posting this to inform everyone who loves Ariel that she is sick right now. Not only that but her melanomas are become malignant. When I say malignant, I mean they are becoming active and she is more than likely going to become ill from cancer in a year and will have to be euthanized. I bawled all weekend because when I first went out to see her on Saturday I could tell that she wasn't feeling well and I found a new melanoma on her belly that had never been there before. Not only that but her other melanomas are bigger and softer now. They use to be small and hard as stones which meant that they were benign.
Along with her melanomas apparently becoming malignant she has Mastitis which is an infection of the mammary gland in mares. A.K.A her left teat is swollen and hurts like heck and was the cause of her not feeling well. Strangely, only mares who have had a foal recently or in the past get mastitis and Ariel has NEVER had a foal. I inquired as to why she got such an infection and the vet said that no one really knows why. I've come to the conclusion that all my pets like to get rare infections and disease just to stress me out. *sigh* My weekend failed.
In this pic you can see that her left teet is swollen. She also has a lump on her belly (note: not the melanoma) that is part of the infection.
Treating mastitis involves antibiotics that have to mixed into her feed along with milking out the pus from her teat two to three times a day. Let me tell you something, trying to squeeze pus out of a mares teat when it hurts like hell results in almost getting your face impaled with a hoof. Yeah, Ariel NEVER kicks at people and she very rarely kicks at other horses so when she tried to plant her hoof into my face I had to go get Michelle. She ended up looping a rope around Ariel's left front leg and hobbling her to keep her from being able to kick me. I sympathized with Ariel because I understand completely that it hurts. 
In this picture you can see her milk vein which is usually only this obvious in prenant mares but since she has mastitis the infection is backing up causing it to show quite well.
The melanomas have not completely attacked her yet but eventually they will. I thought some of you guys should have a heads up so that when and if I have to euthanize her you'll all know why. I'm extremely depressed right now. I'm tired of all my pets dying of some sort of cancer. Its just not fair.
Love,
~Fruitbat~
This pic is of Ariel eating her grain full of antibiotics. The silver marks on her shoulder are an alu-spray that I used to cover up some bite marks that she received from another horse. It keeps the flies off of the wounds.
