Hi all,
I had a recent upsetting finding for my pregnant mare and am unable to consult with my local vets until next week, so am a a bit of a loss about what to think and wanted to reach out to more experienced breeders to see if any of you had any knowledge around this.
I posted about my mare here last last summer, but as a brief update, after consult with my vets and staff at Spy Coast (the stallion owner) we decided to see if she would take before they stopped collections for the year. She ended up becoming pregnant on the first try and I (stupidly) thought, great! She’s read the book on this pregnancy thing!
We did the early twin check and only one embryonic vesicle was found. At the 30 - 45 day heart beat check however, we found a second heart beat. My vets conferred with specialists and we decided to plan on a selective reduction at the specialist clinic at 120 days (if she didn’t bail us out and naturally reduce the pregnancy). When that time came, I shipped her to the clinic, but we were unable to do the procedure because of the location of the fetus the vets had identified for reduction. So I shipped her home and brought her back about three weeks later.
The second trip they were able to do the procedure (they did a transcutaneous, ultrasound guided reduction, injecting procaine penicillin in the heart of the fetus identified for reduction). The following day my mare was rechecked and the discharge paper said the fetus identified for reduction no longer had a heartbeat while the other one did. Success! Now I had to administer regumate for two weeks and then re-check with ultrasound.
Yesterday was the follow-up ultrasound. I was confident my mare had not expelled both fetuses, but of course there was the risk the other one had died too and she was carrying two dead fetuses. My vet here found the heart beat for the twin we had wanted to keep right away, so success again! She went to see if she could visualize the other one and…. Found another heartbeat. I was able to speak with the specialist who did the procedure today and he advised that although they had not seen a heartbeat at the check the day after the clinic, the penicillin with which they had injected the fetus likely impeded the ability to visualize the heart.
So now I have a mare at about 150 days gestation, with twins. 
one is smaller, and the heartbeat was on the lowest end of the normal range, per my vet. The specialist vet said that I could try to reduce the pregnancy again, or terminate the whole pregnancy.
My vet was out of the office today, so I haven’t been able to discuss the best steps with her, but I’m very torn. I’m hoping that the measurements my vet took yesterday will shine some light on how the fetus we wanted to keep is developing, to help guide me a little more. What would you do, CotHers? Is the risk of placental insufficiency already significant enough that i wouldn’t be saving a viable foal? I don’t want to put my mare through a still birth or neonatal death. I’d be willing to try the procedure again, but it would be the third 8+ hour trip out to state to the specialist, which makes me hesitant.
