Pony Cancer - anyone have proof of it spreading?

[Gingerbread]

After reading previous threads on pony cancer, I have been wondering, does anyone have any actual proof that it spreads to other ponies? My entire Gingerbread army have cancer in one form or another, and they have been around other ponies (mainly TEs) with seemingly no ill effect. But my Mimic I won't put near them, just in case!
Should I re-unite my entire TE army, Mimic included, or should I only re-unite after boiling and caution? I use antibacterial soap on my ponies if they need cleaning so that would have got rid of any transferable nasties.

[Elfpony]

I've had several ponies with cancer in my herd for years and it's never spread.  They've even been in boxes with or touching "healthy" ponies with no ill effects.

What I have seen is cancer spots increase on a pony that already has cancer when she was left in a humid environment (basically, what happened was I had some sales ponies that I had transported in ziplock bags.  When I got home I took them all out, but one slipped behind the couch and was missed.  I found her months later and she had more than twice as much cancer on her than the last time I saw her.  She wasn't wet, but she was in a sealed ziplock bag in a hot humid room.)  So make of that what you will.

Elf

[hathorcat]

Cancer is caused by the breakdown of the plastic in that particular pony [whatever the original start/cause of the breakdown may be]...it cant spread from one pony to another - the problem is "inside" the plastic if you like...that degradation cant jump from one plastic item to another...if that was the case we shouldnt put a "cancerous" pony beside any kind of plastic for fear it also develops the same issues! An "age spot" fridge or a "cancerous" xbox console!

[mlpfan]

Cancer is caused by the breakdown of the plastic in that particular pony [whatever the original start/cause of the breakdown may be]...it cant spread from one pony to another - the problem is "inside" the plastic if you like...that degradation cant jump from one plastic item to another...if that was the case we shouldnt put a "cancerous" pony beside any kind of plastic for fear it also develops the same issues! An "age spot" fridge or a "cancerous" xbox console!

i second this! i have been researching pony cancer and it seems to be caused by the plastic degrading, maybe heat? maybe chemicals cause it?

[ShannonInPonyland]

I was wondering the same thing.
Good to hear that it doesn't seem to be contagious 

[Gingerbread]

Cool! Thankyou for the clarification

[Foxtale]

Just to clarify are we talking about the light brown spots, or the light brown spots with the darker dots in the middle, or both?

I thought the one with the dot in the middle is another form of mold and would spread like pin dot mold? I could be mistaken though.

[hathorcat]

Just to clarify are we talking about the light brown spots, or the light brown spots with the darker dots in the middle, or both?

I thought the one with the dot in the middle is another form of mold and would spread like pin dot mold? I could be mistaken though.

I dont think either cancer marks or age marks are considered to be mold...what starts them seems a little debatable [bacteria or simply damaged polymers] but neither have [I believe] been identified as caused by mould at the moment.

[Gingerbread]

I thought that they were the same thing, just the darker spots in the centre of some marks were a more concentrated form of the problem?

[hathorcat]

Personally I think they are the same thing and the same issue and caused by the same source...but other people do firmly believe that they are two separate issues.

[tootie_tails]

I don't think they spread either. I believe they are caused by plasticiser leak. If plasticiser emerges and accumulates on the surface of the pony you need to be there and remove it or it will discolor the plastic.
I have seen the brown spots on moc ponies, usually on twinkle eyes and others that are prone to get those kind of marks. And if the pony is still on the card behind the plastic bubble, how could it have caught it from an other pony?
If a pony has cancer it does get worse if you keep it shut in, in a plastic bag or container. It seems the pony needs to 'breathe', as strange as it is..

[Moonracer]

I think the pony cancer has different causes. Many of them seem to relate to the presence of liquids: when I was a child I often used to "bathe" my ponies (that is play with them in a sink full of water). Since many of those ponies had their heads glued to their bodies, it was impossible to drain them completely. So the humidity present in the pony, made a perfect environment for the cancer development.


Another example is one of the Rainbow Ponies I just bought - Tickle. Tickle had several cancer spots on her plus some glitter rust when I first got her (she still has them though, but from what I can see they haven't spread any further after I gave her a few Oxi Action baths). The cause of this, I think, was the excessive amount of glue covering the interior of her body (I don't think it was plasticizer breakdown, since her body was fairly "soft" and the glue was only on the inside of her body).


The third cause is, like everyone else said here, the aging and breaking of plastic.


Is it contagious? I don't think so. If it was, then not only all the other ponies, but also all the plastic things in our houses would eventually be affected by it. Before I started collecting ponies, I kept my childhood herd all in a small case at the back of my wardrobe, and out of all the nine ponies, only Skydancer had cancer spots.


I think that the reason as to why people think it can spread comes from the fact, that some of them didn't store the ponies properly, hence they developed cancer, and those said people hadn't realized this, instead thinking that the infected pony was responsible for the cancer spread. That's my opinion.


Also, I've noticed that pony cancer, can affect only certain types of ponies.