Agreed! Even my gelding, if he doesn’t get his butt cleaned on the regular, he wrecks his tail.
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Saaaaame here.
On topic, I guess it could be plausible for the mare to have a small foal who could still dip under the pelvis as a young maiden potentially bred by a pony… but…
My one horse did bag up significantly around the same age as the OP’s filly . She didn’t look quite as developed as the OP’s horse, but I could also express fluid. My vet at the time blamed phytoestrogens— she was on a pasture with clover, soy-based feed, and I had just added a soy-based hay stretcher (remember those?).
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I read her posts and I think - if an udder is an udder is an udder and stimulation makes it produce milk then there would be lots of woman producing milk because I am guessing their teats get stimulation from time to time.
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Trub for the win…laughing hurts, but I’m doing it anyway
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“I have nipples, Greg. Can you milk me?”
(Meet the Parents)
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With only Google for my journal access, I was able to find scholarly publications written by veterinarians advocating for milk testing from as early as 1994. Citations show earlier papers from the 80s, I just don’t have access.
TLDR: he advocates sampling milk 2x daily with no consequence to antibody production. He acknowledges the risk of mastitis but notes it is all but prevented with good hygiene.
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Did your vet have any guesses to what caused the udder swelling? Did she/he agree that she looked pregnant?
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She thinks the udder swelling is from something she’s eating. We don’t have clover in the fields and I feed straight orchard grass hay so it’s still a bit of a mystery. I’m thinking of taking her off all soy and see if that makes a difference.
If it’s just extra weight she’s carrying it’s very low. Could soy sensitivity cause bloating? I don’t know.
And quite butt high right now isn’t she? Gotta love 3 year olds.
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Yes, it can. What’s she eating? That just gives me an idea of how much soy is there (relatively speaking, since we don’t actually know how much, unless you’re straight up adding soybean meal)
If it was JUST the udder, I’d be all on board with soy, especially in a still-filly whose hormones are still developing.
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I think anyone who met my pony would think she’s pregnant. She just carries a big belly! She’s a little fat, yes, but its mostly belly. For her, I think its the hay. She’s pretty sensitive to different hays, and the one I have right now tested below average protein and high in lignin (the undigestible part) so it kind of makes sense to me. I also keep her off soy just in case. Once she’s trotting though and using her back and abs properly the belly isnt as obvious.
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She gets timothy pellets, about 2 pounds of TC Senior, a cup of ground flax and a cup of Essential K. Divided into two feedings. Straight orchard grass hay. Overnight turnout on grass, no clover in the fields. She’s about 14.1.
But does she also have a growing udder? And a green pee test?
@2bayboys that’s a very reasonable diet, and not a lot of soy. But, it’s an easy thing to do to remove soy altogether, especially since you have Tribute - switch totally to the Wholesome Blends Balancer. It does have pea protein, another legume, so it’s not a TOTAL trial of going legume-free, but it’s far, far less likely for the amount of pea protein to be a problem, than even the relatively small chance it’s soy that’s the issue. If that doesn’t resolve things after a 50lb bag, then assuming you still don’t have a baby, just drop all the fortification for a month, it won’t hurt her, and see what happens
No which is why I didn’t and can’t speak on that, I was just contributing to the conversation because the vet said no baby. This is a very interesting thread I’m curious to see if anything is figured out (or if there is in fact a baby).
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So this morning the dog wanted to go out early before light, and out I went with him in my pajamas and carrying a flashlight. Shine the light into the mare field and my little mare is lying down with her two herd mates standing guard right next to her. I almost had a heart attack. She was sound asleep and pretty offended that I woke her up
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Just gonna throw out there that my old boy hid from the vet when they examined the mare to the point they were actually going to re-breed her.
He was born about a week before she was going to the next stallion.
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I think she just looks fat to me. If she is pregnant, I expect you will see more signs. My mare was extremely uncomfortable towards the end of her pregnancy. She would sit her rump on the fence because she was uncomfortable. She would itch her udders on the bushes outside. She is a large pony, but being pregnant made her look huge! This was about 17 days before she foaled. I took a tape measure around her flank and it measured about 8 feet around! I’m not kidding. I was using a weight tape to measure her belly but she outgrew that method.
My mare looks pregnant at the best of times. She’s an air fern. When I first brought her home, I did wonder if she was pregnant because she looked huge, but her flank measured the same size as my paint mare. She just carries her weight differently and being an easy keeper, it doesn’t take much to keep her fat. Even while nursing the foal she is on a restricted diet.
I would go ahead and measure your horse’s flank. If she’s pregnant she will keep getting bigger! And watch the udders for changes.
Mares will produce some fluid if you try to milk them. Even non-pregnant mares, but it is usually very watery and doesn’t look like milk at all.
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I’m not at all discounting the possibility that she’s fat, it just seems an odd way of carrying it. She’s a light boned full Tb and was pretty weedy when I first got her.
February
April
Not much has changed in her frame since April except for the growing belly. Still has the same girth size for instance.
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Curious, what more signs are you talking about? The mare has filling teats, and her pee test looked positive.
My mare, who is very much not pregnant sits on the fence to itch and rubs on things so that is not a sign of pregnancy.
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