Maiden mare day 305-what is normal in udders?

[silanac]

Hi all,

well i am a newbie to breeding and foaling, so forgive my seeming ignorance. I have been doing extensive research, reading, etc to prepare myself and become familiar with what is normal, what is not. I am totally fascinated!

my mare is 305 days today. I took her to the foaling farm on saturday. I had thought i had noticed Friday that in front of her udders might have been swelling a bit. Saturday morning it looked a hair bigger, and there were white dots on her teats (which wiped away when i cleaned her teats). The teats themselves were not enlarged, maybe they seemed a little more saggy? When i pointed it out to my repro vet at the foaling farm, she replied, ‘no i think thats just fat’. She apparently believes my mare looks overweight in addition to her pregnancy-my regular vet who came to do her Pneumabort vaccines said he thought her condition was perfect. She is a stockier warmblood who always has a cresty neck, even when she was a gawky 2 yr old.

What are your experiences with maidens and how they bag up? is it possible that this swelling in front of her udder is an early sign of some development? I took a picture on saturday and if i can figure out how to upload i will.

Curious to see what it looks like when we go to visit her Saturday.

Thanks!

[Home_Again_Farm]

Many maidens will get some edema in front of the udder before they really start to bag up. That is quite normal.

[Cindy_s_Warmbloods]

Almost all my mares start showing “some” udder development around day 300, though there have been a couple that were closer to 320. So I think if you have bit of puffiness down there at day 305 it is completely normal and nothing to worry about. I find mine get the white dots on and off and it doesn’t really mean anything problem just hormonal changes…

[Damrock_Farm]

This is one case where it is truly individual to each horse. I’ve foaled out lots of maidens. Generally speaking, MOST maidens don’t develop a bag until very close to delivery, but I’ve had some with a bag as much as t2-3 weeks early. OTOH, I’ve had mares that didn’t develop a bag at all until they were in stage 1 of the delivery process. Multi-para mares (those who have had more than one foal) usually bag up quite a bit earlier, a mare that is bred back while lactating often never completely loses her bag before the next foal comes along.

Also, with all mares, it’s very common for the bag to increase and decrease in size when close to delivery. One of the signs that I watch for here is a bag that doesn’t decrease in size during the course of the day. Usually the bags are bigger in the morning, when they come in for the night, they are much smaller after moving around all day. When it’s just as big or bigger at night as it was in the morning, I start watching a lot closer.

As far as the tiny dots, Cindy’s right, those also seem to come and go. It sounds as though your mare is normal. You vet may not have meant specifically that your mare is overweight, but could have just been referring to fat deposits. I like a mare to be a 6 before foaling because lactation take a LOT out of them and can pull weight off in a hurry, even with a huge increase in their feed intake.

[silanac]

ok sounds great! thanks everyone. im nervous and anxious. on the one hand i am anxious to meet my foal and i want to see some visible signs of progression! on the other hand i want her to take her time and ensure a healthy little one. i guess i have been paranoid that she lost the foal at some point so i want to see some more concrete evidence. she is very clearly pregnant, even without any udder development. its just the newbie paranoia in me i guess

[Damrock_Farm]

Don’t feel bad. Anyone who has bred a mare has had a first time and unless you think you are God, you have to be nervous, wondering if you did everything right. I still get that way after 40 years of mares and foals. “what did I forget? What if this happens? What if that happens?” It goes with the territory. We all want to see a good outcome and I think that’s especially true for a favorite mare.