Please help. I have a 5 yr old med. pony that was brought in to deliver at my farm. old owner assumed she was pregnant because her stud got to her. she has all the signs. the stud got out in july or aug 2011. mare has all the signs of being pregnant. holding tail to side, massage stomach looks like a pair, tied all the time. lays down now every 1.5 to 2 hours when i stalk her at night. was pushing agains walls and water buckets. had vet out did shots and he assumed she was pregnant. 6 weeks went by, no foal. vet associate came out. palptated her, was not sure if she felt movement and couldnt answer me definitely if she was pregnant or not. tried to ultrasound her and no luck their either. inconclusive. what the heck. sent lab work to uc davis. missed them doing the blood work this week and now have to wait till next thursday to get results. im going crazy, i do see movement in her flank area. little bits of rolling and buldging out. just worried cause she is well over 13 months now if she is pregnant. anyone else have this happen??/ if it isnt foal movement then what am i seeing. also she bagged up about a week ago just for a few hours and nothing since. she looks really swollen to me too. i was also getting drops of clear fluid from her teats and now that has stopped too. she is a maiden mare. any advice.
I have palpated my own mares at 9 months, and it is obvious. There is no way any vet unless totally incompetent, and never palpated a pregnant mare could miss a pregnancy at full term.
i dont think she has in a mare. i know cows she has done. i wasnt happy when the vet sent out his associate which is very young and looks like was just out of vet school. im just so confused and wish i had answers.
My vet palpated my mare 6 weeks prior to foaling and could feel the foal without a problem.
Was told she was pregnant but after seeing movement and as she was worked more the what we thought was a hay belly no longer looked like a hay belly.
Call your vet back and ask that he come Monday- not his associate. This is something your average vet student should be able to handle successfully.
There is NO WAY you can miss a full term pregnancy. You can literally bounce the foal with your hand.
I agree with Bayhawk.
Also don’t presume Vet Techs can do these procedures. Even many Vet students don’t get a great deal of experience palpating mares for breeding OR foaling.
OK then if she isn’t pregnant, has anyone ever had a mare show all the signs of pregnancy, including some bagging and not be pregnant? signs are:
flexible tail,
swollen vulva
weight gain
movement in flank area
lays down at night every 1.5 to 2 hours
spongy butt end
holds tail to side
pushing/rubbing butt against walls and water buckets
could this be a false pregnancy???
If the owners"aren’t sure if it was July or August 2011" it could have been Sept. or Oct. and maybe she’s not overdue but just right on time.
Many years ago we had 2 ponies come to us for my sons’ show ponies, yup few months later one was getting groomed early one morning to take off for a show and the curry got kicked/bumped almost outta my hand. Scared the ____ outta me. Showed no outward signs until just weeks before delivery. Ponies can be sneaky.
No way if full term.
ok so I talked to UC Davis vet school today/. the results to my mares blood work came in. They are basically inconclusive. Seeing how we believe the mare to be full term the results of the blood work are not accurate as during a mares pregnancy a mares estrone sulfate levels drop closer to actual foaling date. So if she is in fact pregnant the test wont show!!! IDK, starting to really believe this could be a false pregnancy. but again she has all the signs and is huge!!! I Give up!!
could this be a false pregnancy???
A vet should not be able to get their arm very far at all in when palpating a term mare, there is no way to miss a full term pregnancy. IIRC, this happens when the mare loses the foal but is pregnant long enough for the endometrial cups to form and the mare “thinks” she is pregnant.
I have had 2 separate mare with false pregnancies that presented as you describe.
In both cases, my mares didn’t start cycling again until they got a shot of Lutalyse.
Have your mare examined by a vet who does reproductive work regularly.
thanks so much for the advice. I contacted a repo vet he is going to call me later today. so confused, I hate this!! thanks again
You have got to be pulling your hair out…
My friends mare was building a bag…seemed to have a mushy rear end…loose tail…and NOTHING…we even milked her on a test strip…
Good Luck…
SH:)
