I have a mare who double ovulated. Based on a past twin pregnancy experience where one embryo was crushed and the other reabsorbed later, I’m looking for advice or experiences other people have had with such cases and the best way of managing for a successful outcome.
If this mare conceives twins we will reduce the pregnancy, however wondering if it’s worth transferring the second embryo to a surrogate? Any tips, experience, or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Make SURE you get the ultrasound as soon as you can to make sure there are no twins. My mare had twins and one was pinched off, and the other is now ten and doing super. I don’t see why you should have to go through the enormous expense of a surrogacy, I think reabsorbing just showed the fetus wasn’t viable and doesn’t necessarily show a problem with the mare. Of course, you should discuss this with your repro. vet, who is the expert on your mare.
You have to flush for ET before you can normally detect a pregnancy, so you have to have your ducks in a row and figure out your game plan well in advance (basically at the time of breeding). You don’t have the option of waiting to see if she’s pregnant, and then deciding to flush.
Yep, embryo flushing is done about the week mark, and you hope and cross fingers. You’d have to have an ET mare already lined up and more or less synched with your mare in terms of readiness to accept and implant an embryo.
What you can’t do is flush just 1 of 2 possible embryos, and I’m not entirely sure you could implant 1 of them back into the mare - not sure what that particular flushing process does to the uterus’ viability in terms of holding a pregnancy.
It’s not uncommon for pinching 1 twin to cause the other to reabsorb due to the inflammatory response. The help prevent that, banamine should be given either right away, or right before the process, to keep inflammation to a minimum. So if that wasn’t done, make SURE to get it done this time. Even then, sometimes it just doesn’t work.
Thank you everyone for your input! I am in touch with my repro vet, we will be monitoring closely for twins. Just wanted to follow up with any other ideas and experiences with these cases as I haven’t had much experience with twins and the process. It is encouraging to hear other people have had success with pinching and keeping one.
I was looking more so into surrogates in the event of needing to rebreed if both embryos were lost this try, and whether it was hypothetically a viable option sounds like it is not though and which is good to know!
The survival rate for the remaining pregnancy is really high (like higher than 90% if the vet is good).
My mare was bred on the 25th and double ovulated (presumably by the end of the day on the 26th), and we check back on June 11th to confirm pregnancy and check for twins.
I agree with others re: absorbing just not being a ‘viable’ cell, unfortunately.
My 12 yr old gelding was a twin. Mare double ovulated and yep conceived twins, vet squished one and left my gelding. Gave banamine and she had no issues carrying a very large first foal. She did not double ovulate on her second pregnancy but ended up with placentitis that require big $ to treat (thank you insurance company I did not have to foot all that bill!). Filly was born no issues.
Breeding and all of its trials and some triumphs!
My mare double-ovulated this spring. Checked her at 16 days and twins had already fused, so could not pinch one off. Vet said to wait and see if one would die off on its own. Checked again at 21 days, one growing and the other getting smaller, and then checked at 30 days. Had a heartbeat, and smaller twin had died off on its own (larger one attached to uterus and received nutrition, and blocked smaller one that did not receive nutrition from uterus), so we are now good to go. This was my first experience with twins.
Random thought - that would be so cool if you could test your foal next year to see if s/he is a chimera.
My mare actually ended up having triplets- two were reduced successfully and the remaining is a very lovely colt! Two were ‘true’ twins and the third must have been fertilized a few days later as it was much smaller than the twins and was only visible as a ‘suspicious shadow’ on the first scan. One twin was pinched at that first check and then the triplet on the next check two days later. We did end up giving her one shot of anti-inflammatories since there was a fair amount of prodding which can irritate the uterus. The remaining embryo grew normally.
I will echo what the others have said, if the remaining in your mare was reabsorbed it probably wasn’t viable in the first place. Usually, the smaller embryo is pinched off or if they are of equal size, which ever is easier to get at. Some people will also use Regumate for a few days/weeks after pinching twins but I am unsure if it makes much difference, I haven’t read into it.
JB I wondered the same thing!
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
