Help with hormonal mare behavior

[sarah3218]

Hi guys, just want to start out by saying I am going to talk to my vet about this! I obviously need a vet opinion, but I also wanted to see what else people suggest for this type of issue.

My horse is about 25 years old, and for the last year she has been having really severe mare/heat type symptoms. When she’s in heat it’s really intense - she develops a HUGE obsession with a mare she’s turned out with or turned out next to. (she only acts this way towards 1 horse at a time, but the horse changes typically every few months.) She has “picked” 1 mare to be obsessed with even when turned out in a group of 8.

She becomes so obsessed with them she won’t take her eyes off them, follows them around 100% of the time she is able to, squirts a ton, screams/paces/paws if they’re more than 10 feet away and freaks out worse if the can’t see them. On a bad heat day, she becomes so stressed and distracted by her chosen girlfriend that she barely eats her hay/grass because every time the horse takes a step her head shoots up and she panic calls for/runs toward them. Or if they won’t pay attention to her, she just paws and paces and screams until they do.

When she isn’t in heat, she is still unhealthily attached to her “girlfriend”. She does the same things but toned down. The attachment to the other horse is constantly distracting her and stressing her (and myself) out. Her behavior chilled out a little over winter, but now is worse again in the warmer months.

I put her on Leg Up Mare pellets from smartpak, but they haven’t helped. Does anyone have suggestions for a supplement to try next? Is this something Regumate can help with?

Also, does anyone know why a mare would develop these behaviors in their mid 20’s? I’ve had her since she was 5 and she wasn’t ever like this. She had typical heat symptoms up until recently

[GraceLikeRain]

I’d want a reproductive exam with ovary ultrasound to see if there are any tumors or cysts. Barring that, regumate should help considerably. Mine went from stop mid trot steps to pee and nicker at a boy to a share fence line with just typical mare theatrics but nothing hormonal at all.

[Pico_Banana]

I highly recommend trying Evitex before going to Regumate. I’ve tried both with my mare and the Evitex worked surprisingly well.

[CHT]

A client (that doesn’t board with me) is starting her mare on Oxytocin to help with her horse’s behaviour while in heat which is causing issues now that she is in a mixed gender herd.

She has to give it daily for a month, but then it is monthly (I think). We aren’t sure if it is all year, but I assume so. The vet suggested this over regumate because it is more cost effective, safer for her to handle, and the vet has had good results with it.

That said, I wonder if your mare is stressed because she is going a little senile or having vision issues and wanting a “Seeing eye” horse, or trying to “fit in” by being in a raging heat - like mares tend to do when introduced to a new herd.

[JB]

First thing I’d do, given she’s 25, is test for PPID. You have until about July 1 to do the TRH Stim test which will do a better job catching early disease. After that, you need the endogenous ACTH test

[sarah3218]

Thank you for all the responses- they are very helpful! I appreciate them.