Mare 334 days - little to no bag/milk

[shanglebranch]

I have a 19 year old warmblood mare that’s had two prior pregnancies currently in foal and 334 days along. I have very little details on the first two pregnancies. The first 6+ years ago she supposedly “carried way over” and the foal was born small and died about a week later (not sure if this was an informed breeder or not). Pregnancy two 4 years ago was an established program and was “normal”.

This mare has little to no bag. I can get a bit of milk when I attempt to squeeze but not much. The mare was removed from a grazing pasture 80+ days ago and has been on a mix of straight alfalfa hay and an orchard/alfalfa mix (and lots of it). She’s also fed 9+ pounds of a quality mare/foal feed per day.

The vet vet is coming out to take a look this week and told me she might want to put her on domperidone (so?). I trust my vet but am just curious to see if anyone has any thoughts on this? I have had many foals born on the farm but it’s been about 18 years so I’m rusty. Should I be panicking at this point or would you give it a little longer in care she’s just one of those that gets ready/delivers later? Thanks in advance for any input!

[va2txrider]

I took a 19 year old mare to my vet’s at 330 days for foal #11 and she hardly had any udder at all. It has developed fairly rapidly. She is now at 344 and they said her milk is starting to change, and her bag is quite full now. I think the bags can develop pretty quickly. Good luck!

[Daventry]

It is important to remember that there is no such thing as a due date with mares, only a guideline. The average is 340 days from a range of 320 to 370 days. As well, every mare is different. I have one mare that religiously starts bagging up 10 weeks out each year and have had others that really don’t have much of a bag until a week before foaling.

[shanglebranch]

Thanks for the reassurance from you both! I didn’t think we were in trouble yet but again, it’s been a long time and I wanted some opinions. I know mares wait until they are ready and think this girl just has a ways to go yet. Our other mare is due 8 days after this one and, of course, has quite the bag already!

[exvet]

I agree with the others. First of all, my mares, every single one, went past 352 days. Two of them didn’t develop much of a bag until a week or so before foaling. One even though she wasn’t a maiden waited until 3 days before really getting a full bag. All three times she foaled for me, she would start streaming milk just an hour before foaling. Her predictability from year to year was pretty much like clock work but if I hadn’t of gone through it with her once (driving myself crazy) she would have added more grey hairs to this head the second two times. Good luck.

[Simkie]

This is a great article about “due dates” in mares:

http://www.equine-reproduction.com/articles/overdue.shtml

[ejm]

From the description of her foaling problems the first time, it sounds like fescue toxicity was a real possibility.

We had a mare who foaled at 10 months and two weeks twice (first one was born in the field), but all the others went well over the 11-month due date, and as others have said, some of them take their time developing an udder.

[RunningwaterWBs]

Don’t panic, keep a close eye on her, and prepare yourself for a dysmature foal.

I dealt with a similar mare last year. “Normal” due dates passed, her bag stayed small, and I think I was on foal watch a full 80 days. Eventually she bagged up for real. Finally, on day 409, she had a very small filly. She was ok, but we did watch her very carefully and she needed some antibiotics and ulcer meds. Because dysmature foals’ legs aren’t fully calcified, she was confined to a stall for 5 weeks. She’s a fine and healthy yearling now.

[JB]

334 days is barely into the safe zone, which starts at 320 and is ideally more like at least 330. She may also be a mare whose bag develops quickly in the few days before foaling.

If your Winter was particularly brutal, and/or if your Spring is also not very suitable for a newborn foal, there’s every reason to think mother nature is watching out, and waiting for better conditions.

Foals are the ones who get ready. The mare then just chooses the details

As long as she doesn’t have a giant leap in bag development (potential placentitis), no weird discharge, then I’d say you’re just too early. If it bothers you enough, the vet can ultrasound the placenta and make sure it looks healthy.

[SquishTheBunny]

We did pH testing and it was bang on with 2 mares. Both were about 350 days.