Mare bagging up early...

[Flying_5B_Warmbloods]

Hi all,

I just shipped two pregnant mares down from Oregon to Texas about two weeks ago, and they seem to be doing fairly well. However, I am very worried about one mare who seems to be bagging up early (she’s 196 days along right now and is due in May). Milk definitely comes out of her udder when squeezed, and when our vet came out to do an overall wellness check after the long trip, the bloodwork showed low progesterone levels on both mares (about 2.2 I think). After the bloodwork, we started her back on regumate. Our vet said that it is normal for some mares to have milk through the entire pregnancy, but I feel like this isn’t accurate or that he should be taking this more seriously? So my question is what does bagging up early (196 days) mean exactly and if there’s an issue is there anything I can do at this point? Could the long trip have stressed her out and caused the low levels of progesterone and the bagging up?
Thanks in advance!!

[BroncoMo]

I honestly can’t say whether or not it’s accurate that a mare may bag up after a long haul, but I would deffinitely have a repro specialist look at her ASAP for placintitis. Since I don’t know you and your level of expericence, I absolutely do not want to insult your inteligence. But placintitis can develop quickly and one of the first signs in bagging up. Regumate is a good call, though if it is placinititis, aggressive antibiotics are going to be necessary.

[NancyM]

I agree with BrocoMo above. I’ve had this happen a few times, and though I also have heard of mares who have milked early and everything has been fine, IME, it is often a prewarning of a number of future problems. IME, these problems have not been avoidable, or successfully treatable with veterinary assistance. Often, twins, where one has died and is deteriorating, and there just isn’t anything you can do about it now. And it doesn’t matter that the mare has been scanned, once, twice, three times etc, they still can miss them. Whatever is in store for you on foaling day, if you are losing milk early, start hunting now for a good source of colostrum, just in case what is produced is alive and viable. Because IME, the colostrum will not be there on foaling day if milk is leaking early, no matter what anyone claims. Good luck.

[Daventry]

Is it possible that the mare foaled in 2015 and was weaned from her foal right before shipping? That would explain the full bag and milk.

From personal experience, I had a mare bag up at day 257. Rushed the vet out and ultrasounded her and diagnosed her with placentitis. If I hadn’t noticed and started her on meds when we did, I’m confident she would have ended up aborting. Placentitis is common, and as far as I understand, one of the main reasons for abortions in mares. Like others have mentioned above, I would have your mare ultrasounded by an experienced repro vet to determine whether placentitis is a possibility. The other possibility is twins.

Just wondering though if the timeline is right that she had a 2015 foal that was weaned when she was shipped to you.

[BroncoMo]

Since it sounds like you have caught it early, you will have a better chance of saving her pregnancy if it is placinitis. I’ve only had one case; started with cervical prolapse, placititis ensued, long story short 6 weeks later lost the pregnancy. That’s my only dealing with it. But I do have a friend who has gotten a few mares close enough to due date that the foals were viable. There’s some odd theories on speeding up maturation with the use of lights (just as if you were using lights to bring a mare in to heat) so the foal is better prepared for an early arrival. But I don’t know if there’s any scientific research to back that up. So they can be saved, just have to treat early and aggressively.

[Frost_Lady]

Have a repro vet examine her. I agree with above poster regulate, antibiotics and banamine asap.