I went to say goodnight to my pregnant maiden mare and noticed that her udder is hard. Each udder has a long lump in it. Is this normal before milk production 
She was not upset by my touching and squeezing (and she is a princess!) but there were definitely two solid lumps in her udder. This is my first foal so I’m not exactly sure what falls into the normal category…
I would call your vet at a MINIMUM!
Add raspberry leaf tea leaf to her feed good for edema and uterus. And call the vet. Best of luck.
[QUOTE=lolita1;6309620]
Add raspberry leaf tea leaf to her feed good for edema and uterus. And call the vet. Best of luck.[/QUOTE]
Can that be given to pregnant mares? I caution everyone to consult with their vet before giving any new med kr supplement to a pregnant mare’s diet. When I went through the founder with my pregnantarw, it was a real eye opener to all the common medications that could do serious harm to an unborn foal!
I had a maiden mare who did that. It has been a few years so I don’t remember exactly when it started, but it was well before she foaled. Her udder felt like it had a long rock in it, on both sides. She foaled uneventfully, but the foal had a very hard time nursing, to the point I had the vet out in the middle of the night. Her thought was to use oxytocin, every three hours. It worked, and by morning her udder was soft and the foal was fine, with a great IgG. She didn’t ever do it again.
My mare has this too–it started about a week and a half ago (she is also 281 days along), and I called my regular vet, since I was concerned.
There was no “udder”, per se, but on one side, there was a long, tubelike swelling in front of and behind one teat. My vet is NOT a repro vet ;), so I called down to ERC and talked to Robin, hoping that the vet down there might have some thoughts. When I described it, Robin said “that’s her milk vein”, explaining that the milk vein that feeds the udder often becomes swollen and appears tubelike at around that gestational stage.
WHEW! Since it was only on one side, I wasn’t concerned, there is no obvious udderly appearence, and her teats are small and dry. It is bigger than Robin said it usually is (the diameter of a finger), but today when I checked on her, there seems to be more edema on the other side as well. 
It seems to be mostly in front of and behind her teats, and is insensitive, though is a hard swelling.
My mare IS a sweller! She loves to puff up with edema, especially when it’s warm and muggy, so I am HOPING that this isn’t something I should be worried about, but plan to call a local repro vet on Monday and see whether she can either reassure me that this is okay, or come out and take a look at her.
(I love my own vet, but she is NOT a repro vet, so I would prefer not to take any chances…)
If anyone else could weigh in with their experiences, that would be very helpful! OP, how does your mare’s udder look now, any changes?
I posted about my mare bagging up at 282. She is now 306 (or 307), is HUGE in the udders, soft in the tail and her vuvla is elongated. Her milk is not opague, but still thick and yellowish.
I had my mare double checked for placentitis and to make sure we still had a moving baby and all was well as of this past Monday.
I am on edge worrying about things too. My vet assures me all looks(ed) well as of Monday, but you know things can change fairly quickly.
This is a 12 yr old maiden. Her full sister (aged 114) just had her first foal at 325 - healthy and strong.
Breeding is not a simple thing of get pregnant, have a baby, is it?!
Fingers crossed for your mare and your sanity. I hope we both can share happy stories and pictures in a month or two!
Thanks, oppsie (just pulled up your thread and read it), that is somewhat reassuring. I’ll still get her checked out for my peace of mind…
It’s definitely not twins (there was only one follicle), and there is no discharge; from either teats or vulva! She’s totally fine with me poking all around the swollen area, and this is a sensitive chestnut mare ;), so I’m hoping that this is just edema (and or milk vein) and not something more ominous.
She too is a maiden, just turned 14.
JustMyStyle, how is it going with your mare?
Maybe we can “worry together, BB style”…
[QUOTE=oppsie2;6311268]
I posted about my mare bagging up at 282. She is now 306 (or 307), is HUGE in the udders, soft in the tail and her vuvla is elongated. Her milk is not opague, but still thick and yellowish.
I had my mare double checked for placentitis and to make sure we still had a moving baby and all was well as of this past Monday.
I am on edge worrying about things too. My vet assures me all looks(ed) well as of Monday, but you know things can change fairly quickly.
This is a 12 yr old maiden. Her full sister (aged 114) just had her first foal at 325 - healthy and strong.
Breeding is not a simple thing of get pregnant, have a baby, is it?!
Fingers crossed for your mare and your sanity. I hope we both can share happy stories and pictures in a month or two![/QUOTE]
Age 114? Did you notify Guiness?
[QUOTE=Laurierace;6311709]
Age 114? Did you notify Guiness?[/QUOTE]
:lol: :lol:
Yeah, I noticed that too, but didn’t want to say anything…
Too funny, guess I had a slight type-o 
She is a 1998 model, so that makes her 14, not 114. Whew. Me thinks I go to fast and don’t review what I wrote. Shame on me… I just got done subbing in a GT English class for middle school and the teacher was all over the kids for checking for errors and not relying on spell check. Poor Mrs. Goode, she would not be happy with me for that ;-(
I am separating my mare from the herd today and will do her stall up in straw this week. Guess I better be prepared, than caught with my undies down around my ankles. I am getting excited and sick feeling too.
Woke up around 3am (Happy Mother’s Day to me) and could not get it out of my head that Ava was going to foal TODAY. My slider in my bedroom faces her paddock and I can hear things fairly well, I heard no odd sounds. Took me a while to get back to sleep.
Got up early this AM (around7) and rushed down to the barn. As i turned the corner I felt sick to my stomach… I saw this two tiny bodies lying close together near my mare. To my amazement, they both popped up when they heard my fett thundering towards them… it was my two petite pygmy goat does!!! WHEW. Of course I checked my mare’s belly to see if she still looked huge (and pregnant) and she does! I was scared for a moment.
Dr. D - We can commiserate together with this goofy maidens! I am sure we will both be posting picks of lovely foals in a few weeks and then we can laugh over our silly selves.
[QUOTE=Dr. Doolittle;6311694]
It’s definitely not twins (there was only one follicle)…[/QUOTE]
FYI, only having one ovulatory-looking follicle at the time of insemination does not guarantee it’s not twins. If the semen is high quality, it can live in the uterus quite a long time and another follicle can develop and ovulate several days later- resulting in twins that are not the same “age” Only a couple of ultrasounds will tell you whether there is just one baby in there and every once in a while, those get messed up too.
As for your original question, it is likely edema but it is always worth having the vet come out if you are concerned. I have had 2 cases in the past where I trusted my gut and had the vet out- one was placentitis and one was mastitis, both resolved well (mostly thanks to being caught early)
So, very busy weekend (including getting a very flat tire late Saturday night ). But, her udder looks better. The left udder softened and the “lump” is way down on the right side.
It’s much harder than an edema, and the lump was IN the udder, I could feel around it if that makes sense. So, progressively better! Just one of those, panicked Friday night maiden mare and first foal for me too!
oppsie2 - My mare is also HUGE!!! She’s maybe 15.3 on a good day she’s almost as big as the 16.2h warmblood that’s due in a month!
I called the repro vet this AM, left a message, she called me back–and I got incredibly lucky–she will be near my barn this afternoon and can take a look at my mare, PHEW!
oppsie and JRS, I’ll report back here and maybe the vet will be able to educate me on “all things udder related in last trimester mares”, and possibly assuage my anxiety (and yours), IF this sort of thing winds up being “within normal parameters.”)
Trinity :eek: She was ultrasounded 3 times: at 14 days, 28 days, and 75 days–nothing since. Any chance my crack team of Repro Specialists could have missed it? Off to grind on this and chew my liver…sigh I will post again later after the vet sees her…
Partial placental separation is the verdict
The vet HOPES we caught it in time, she gave her a big shot of Progesterone, and we are putting her on antibiotics for 10 days; she thinks it’s a subclinical infection. After checking her bag (she remarked that it was odd to have her bagging up on one side, and this early, though no discharge was detected), she ultrasounded her, and discovered the partial separation.
I’m going to start another thread on the above topic, GOOD LUCK to the other posters on this thread–I am hoping that your mares do NOT have anything of a serious nature, but I am more than ever a believer that “when in doubt, call the vet out!”
:sigh:
I hope she can hold on to the pregnancy. I am now officially a nervous wreck.
(Not twins, BTW–filly is healthy, well-positioned, and very active.)
So despite things looking better, this morning both udders were very swollen and hard this morning. Right before all this happened I decided I wasn’t really liking the vet I used when I moved a few months ago.
Sooo…This morning I called a new vet (with excellent recommendations). I described what was happening, that it got better and is now worse, but not sensitive. He was not in the least concerned. He said rub her with some udder cream and keep and eye on how she feels. As long as she is perky and herself don’t worry…so, now just waiting…
Thanks for the update, JustMyStyle–maybe this early bagging is just your mare’s individual tendency, and nothing to be alarmed about–great to hear that the vet was reassuring! 
Now you will be expected to keep us all posted, of course…
She already looks ready to pop, and we’ve got 45 days to go! I have a week trip in June and a suspicious feeling she’s gonna foal early!
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