Long Gestation

[RedHeadFred]

I wasn’t sure where to put this but figured this would be acceptable.

[INDENT]I was hoping those that breed and have had mares go past the average EDD of 342 could chime in with their experiences.

I have a mare that is in her mid teens, not a maiden and now over 350 days. I had thought delivery was imminent Friday before last when every sign made an appearance but at the end of the day they all disappeared. Colic did cross my mind but she ate well and she peed and pooped normally. Some looseness to her piles but not runny. Now she is acting as if she could carry this foal for awhile longer.

She has a bag and most days it is full and tight in the morning and softer in the evening but it has stayed on the tight side into evening a couple of times. She doesn’t have the classic V but she didn’t in past pregnancies. She is carrying much lower than her normal at this point. According to her past owners she would foal a week to ten days before the average date. She has relaxed through the rear end. Some days there is less resistance in her tail than others and there have been a couple of days where there was no resistance. Bites at her sides, stomps, waddles when she walks, swishes her tail.Looks miserable. Every morning though she will about run you over for her feed and then by evening she acts like she could care less about food but she does eat and eats her normal portion.

When do I start worrying? What more can I look for sign wise? About six weeks ago she bagged up. A month ago I could milk a small amount and test with hardness and ph strips. Hardness was at or above 200 and PH would swing between 7.8 and 7.2 with it dropping lower on one occasion. Now she won’t let any down.

I know advice is call the vet if you are worried but my question is more is this something to worry about? What are your experiences and was there a point you just knew it would be soon?
[/INDENT]

[Highflyer]

They are all so different, mare to mare and even sometimes year to year. 350 is still within the normal range, so not time to panic yet.

[JB]

She’s not “late” until 370 days. I don’t know where you are, but if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere and in a heat wave like we have been, she may be waiting until things cool off a bit. Foals and high heat don’t go well together. So if you ARE quite hot, make sure you have plans for keeping the foal in the shade for the hot part of the day, and around fans when out of the sun.

[PeteyPie]

I just want to know how you accomplished the indent in your post. It never works for me.

[khall]

I had one do the cramp and dance for 3 weeks before she finally foaled. I was so tired by the end of that gestation! She was a maiden so I really did not know what to expect. When she finally did foal it was with classic symptoms of waxing and white milk streaming. So far all of mine have waxed (except for one maiden years ago) and had white milk. I’ve never done the milk strip testing to speak of, I just try like heck to be there. Missed one in all of the years. The cramp and dance mare she finally foaled at 8pm, thank goodness my DH was here, he had to pull that one.

[Black_Points]

My TB mare was 19 when she had her 6th foal and even though all the others were between 340 and 358 days of gestation, this last one took 365 and had me worried. However, she delivered at 4 in the afternoon with the whole neighborhood there to see. I still have that foal, now a gelding and 20 yr old.

This same mare delivered one June when we were having an awful heat wave in the 90’s for a week and she waited till midnight when it was cooler to foal. I don’t think you need to worry ReadHeadFred. Enjoy your new one!

Mary in western NY

[RedHeadFred]

PeteyPie my PC randomly eats posts so if I am wanting to post or reply with something longer than just a sentence or two I type it in Word and copy/paste. It saves remembering to copy as I go. I notice this site has an autosave so I my just go with the flow and see what happens.

Thank you mucho, mucho to all that have replied!

Yes, we are in the Northern Hemisphere. Southern U.S. and horrid humidity. I’ve seen worse heat wise but the combination of even lower temps with such high humidity has been awful. Never had one due this late. In all my years working with them everything was timed for early to late spring before official summer began certainly not August. This year has been a record one for us. I’m having to worry about the rain. We have well over the normal and it is every day, multiple times a day. That means pastures are staying wet. Even the high ground. The ants are moving to the surface and spreading across the surface which is another worry. Hay will be short in supply because no one can get it cut, dry and in before it being rained on. Trees are coming down in the slightest winds so clean up is continuous. Now there is a tropical storm and we are in the cone. I’m quite sure that is what she is waiting for. It has to be - right? Exhaustion is beating on the door and of course I had to come down with a severe case of bronchitis likely from lack of rest. Just venting at this point.

[rememberthenight]

I have a lovely Arab mare that holds her foals hostage for a solid 360-365 days!!! The first time she did it we were afraid of a dysmature baby, but he came out strong and healthy. And she has done it for 2 more foals- so apparently it is just her. If I remember correctly she was also a late foal for her dam, but I don’t remember how late, only that I expected her to be born much sooner and she decided to be born the afternoon of my prom night… she was the best thing about that day!!!

[NancyM]

While I’ve found that most mares go close to the same amount of gestation time with each foal, and each has their own time it takes to cook a foal, but sometimes they do something different. It may or may not signal an issue, a problem. Either way, there isn’t a lot you CAN do at this point, other than wait, and watch. If she is “truly” down and trying to foal, and can’t, that is when you need a vet or tech, who can straighten a malpositioned foal for the best chance of success. If you know your mare well, you kinda know when that is happening. Until then, she is just being late. Truly “late” is closer to being a full year of gestation.

Bad situations that happened to me with mares who went close to a year in gestation include a foal with it’s head turned back. I was SURE that mare was trying to foal, and could not. The mare was not mine, but the owner would not call the vet. I called the vet, he came and straightened the head to pointing in the correct direction, and foaling ensued. No problems, foal was fine. Vet said that “it would not have come out” without this manipulation (both mare and foal would have died). But you have to wait until foaling is eminent to do this. The other bad situation that happened with an overdue mare was a set of twins. Both could not come through the birth canal together, so progress was stopped, until they got it sorted out who was coming first. This was not a successful birth for either twin, and involving a vet would not have solved the issues, as it turned out.

As long as your mare is not leaking milk, running a LOT of milk, you are just going to have to wait, and things are not happening any time soon. When milk starts to leak a lot, run out, things should be or will be happening soon. Hopefully. If things do not progress within a day or so with leaking a lot of milk, best to get a vet in to examine the situation, see if there is a problem that is stopping the foal from coming through the birth canal.

The running of the milk is something that you do not “express”, it just runs out on it’s own, unassisted. When it happens, if foaling is not happening soon, within a few hours or a day, it can become problematical in it’s own right. Because you lose colostrum. Some people say that this is not the case, but in my experience it CAN be the case. If this happens, look for some stored colostrum to supply for your foal, just in case. Using stored colostrum can save a foal, or can save a foal from needing a plasma transfer to survive. It’s a cheap and easy way to improve the odds of success.

Good luck. The worst thing about having an overdue mare that you have been watching for FAR TOO LONG, is the exhaustion that you are fighting. Try to get some sleep during the day, with someone else watching your mare, so that you will be awake for the big event. Being awake, and being present can make the difference between success and failure.

[RedHeadFred]

Thank you for your reply. I have school during the day so no sleeping in class well except for today. There is colostrum in the freezer. Mom has been doing this for more than twice as long as I have been on Earth. No running milk. We are all getting antsy. She was my mom’s mare but now is mine. Her last foal was malpositioned so I worry.

[RedHeadFred]

Just to update. Today is 365 days so 1 whole year. She has a vet appointment I think next week. No foal yet and she is just looking like a blimp.

[S1969]

@RedHeadFred

Just to update. Today is 365 days so 1 whole year. She has a vet appointment I think next week. No foal yet and she is just looking like a blimp.

My mare foaled her last one at 366 days after several weeks of constant watching. She was not mine at the time, and had been neglected…but had a huge, healthy colt. Of course, when no one was watching.

Get ready.

[JB]

I think it’s good that the vet will be out to double check things. 365 is still within the normal range. Even though 370 is considered the end of “normal”, there are plenty of mares who foal after that, sometimes well after that. Yes, sometimes even over 400 days. Fingers crossed you don’t have to deal with that!

[Obsidian_Fire]

@RedHeadFred

Just to update. Today is 365 days so 1 whole year. She has a vet appointment I think next week. No foal yet and she is just looking like a blimp.

Any news yet???

[RedHeadFred]

Sick at home and bored. I had not checked in a long time. She is supposed to be due in late February or March. It was the second time she was exposed not the first. Still don’t know why she acted like she was going to have it when she did. Maybe it was transition to placenta my mom said.

[rememberthenight]

If she was bagging up, particularly that early, she needs to be seen by a vet pronto to check if her placenta is healthy or if something else is going wrong.

She would only only have been 6ish months along in sept and you were describing her being huge…?

[JB]

@RedHeadFred

Sick at home and bored. I had not checked in a long time. She is supposed to be due in late February or March. It was the second time she was exposed not the first.

If, in Sept, she had "

a bag and most days it is full and tight in the morning and softer in the evening but it has stayed on the tight side into evening a couple of times. "

then at what would, allegedly, have been 6-7 months along, that is alarming, and really screams placentitis.

Still don’t know why she acted like she was going to have it when she did. Maybe it was transition to placenta my mom said.

I don’t know what that means, but foals don’t “transition” to anything at that many months along.

@rememberthenight

If she was bagging up, particularly that early, she needs to be seen by a vet pronto to check if her placenta is healthy or if something else is going wrong.

She would only only have been 6ish months along in sept and you were describing her being huge…?

Yep, something is not right. I hope she’s still pregnant. I hope the vet really did come out to take a good look and feel. Not right at all.

[RedHeadFred]

She is still huge. I will have to ask about that. What I think I understood but did not explain well is that the ovary is in charge of the hormones until the placenta takes over the hormones once it is mature. Am I still misunderstanding? A friend said it was maybe something she ate.

[JB]

The only think I can think of (not that I"m intimately familiar with it all) is that around Day 100, the placenta starts producing its own progestin. But that’s 3-ish months in, not 5-6.

What is her bag doing? Something is not right still. Did the vet actually come out? I wonder if you’re looking at a false pregnancy, or twins doing something they shouldn’t be doing.

[RedHeadFred]

Update. Our old vet came out to see the dog and put my dad’s mare to sleep and mom had him check my mare. She also asked him a bunch of other question. He said from size and position he thinks she is going to have baby in late January or in February. I hope she has a valentine baby. He said this year has been odd and mares have been having bags that come and go that many people miss changes since they can come and go but usually they are not that much. He also said she could have lost a twin but that is rare. Mom told him about the deer and when that happened and that would fit. He still thinks maybe late January is possible but most probably February with that information.