Anyone feeding any supplements they think help with mares with challenging heat cycles? Not ready to go the regumate route. I know supplements and whether they work for stuff like this is a little controversial but just wanted to see what people’s experiences are. I’ve tried raspberry leaves in the past and maybe there was a difference but I was undecided. On one of my other mares I think it made a significant change in how much tension she had at certain times in her cycle.
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Highly recommend Evitex. It’s a liquid chasteberry supplement. I wanted to get my mare off Regumate and tried this and it worked great. Had tried raspberry leaves before with no effect.
I don’t have anything helpful to add, but I’m in the same boat with my mare. It’s not bad EVERY heat cycle, but every few cycles she has an episode where she refuses her food, lies down, and doesn’t show any interest in treats/friends/movement. The first few times it happened, the vet came out immediately and did a full colic workup (she’s a colic surgery survivor, so we all have some residual trauma from that!), but after a few vet calls of “she’s fine, just ovulating,” we now tend to just give her banamine, walk her, and keep an eye on her to make sure she poops and perks back up.
My barn owner very insistently wants her on regumate, but that seems like the nuclear option when there are other types of (less intense) supplements and remedies out there, like raspberry leaf or chasteberry. I’m definitely going to look up @Pico_Banana’s Evitex suggestion!
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Have you ever tried her on regumate?
@Pico_Banana how long until you saw a difference on the chasteberry? I did stop by the feed store last night and got something very similar to what you recommended. It’s been exactly 21 days since her last heat and she is super stiff in the back, on the shoulder, and some twisting head/grinding teeth. Sensitive to grooming and being tacked up, too. She’s come so far in the last 6 mos behaviorally that I really don’t want a backslide.
No, not yet–it seems like a pretty aggressive option, given how poorly some mares can react to missed doses and how many precautions humans have to take to avoid even touching it. I’d rather try some of the other kinds of remedies first and only try regumate after I’ve ruled those out.
I don’t remember how long it took to make a difference, but my best guess is that you should see some improvement after 21 days.
What product are you using? The Evitex claims to have a special way of making the tincture that makes it superior to other chasteberry products. Might just be good marketing but maybe give it a try?
Regumate is great, too, and not a big deal really once you get used to it. But you do have to rely on staff to give it appropriately. Back when I boarded, I had my mare on it. I realized the barn was not giving her around half of the doses because I brought in a new bottle when the old one should have been close to empty and it was still half full. Total waste of money when given that inconsistently. Naturally, the barn disclaimed any responsibility and conveniently thereafter took the position that it is a medicine and giving it was subject to their $25/day medication fee. Needless to say, we left shortly thereafter.
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I was happy with the Happ-e-mare supplement - contains chasteberry, raspberry leaves, and some other stuff. My mare readily ate it, even though it’s a powder.
I have also used the chasteberry pellets by SmartPak for my Cushing’s gelding. Another option if you want to go the chasteberry only route. It is pelleted, and very palatable. My gelding was the pickiest eating near the end, but he readily ate his chasteberry pellets.
I tried a handful of things before going to regumate. I use a 20 ml screw on syringe and it’s a completely contained and easy method for dispensing. Night and day difference with the back tenderness, boy chasing, etc.
Best of luck finding the right combo. Horses that cycle hard is challenging for everyone.
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Their what?! That’s bananas for something you just squirt in food and carry on.
Regumate is a liquid hormone that can penetrate the skin so you need to have a lot of precautions both measuring and dosing, and also with the empty feed pans and buckets that might have traces. It disrupts human female hormones and you definitely don’t want your young adult or teenage female barn help exposed. It’s definitely medication.
There is a longer acting injectable form.
I found Regumate acted really fast, and shut down heat related crankiness. I only used it for one spring and summer, stopped when maresy went out for fall pasture vacation. She came into raging heat for a week and was shunned by the herd until she got over that.
The next year I saw no need for it, and while she still.comes into heat, she isn’t angry or uncomfortable.
It’s really worth it to see if hormones are the issue.
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Regumate is a liquid hormone
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Well aware as I’ve been using it for years.
With a screw on syringe I have zero leakage and I’ve always provided gloves to staff when I was in a standard boarding barn. Across multiple barns it’s been a total non issue with these two precautions. I standby finding it absurd for a barn to charge $750/month for a medication that is very manageable and squirted into food. Wrangling eye meds or a syringe, maybe, but not a maintenance medication commonly used by many mare owners.
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