What is the mortality rates for mares that prolapse their uterus?

[TrueColours]

Just thinking back this morning to the neighbours mare I went to help with, who prolapsed her uterus shortly after foaling out

I am assuming that a lot of factors are at play as well

How quickly it is addressed
How dirty / compromised it got while it was out
If there are any tears in it
Age of the mare
Etc etc etc

The mare in this case foaled outside and when I saw her about 60-90 minutes after foaling, the vet had just put the IV into her, the mare had been down, in apparent shock, for maybe 20-30 minutes before we all got there, there wasnt a LOT of blood but I guess hard to tell as a lot may have soaked into the ground already, and the uterus was hanging out but looked completely clean in a neat little pile behind her

It took them maybe 30 minutes to get it back in and stitch her up and she didnt come out of the anaesthetic well at all. She struggled to regain her feet for maybe 10 minutes and would get partway up and then crash back down again and it was all the fellow could do that was holding her to keep her away from the fence and the water trough - she was throwing herself around that badly

When she finally did get up and regain her balance, she immediately looked for her baby and started to nicker to her. She would get upset if we moved baby away from her front end to try and let her nurse, so we bottle fed her milk replacer so Momma could nuzzle her and talk to her and relax

I left maybe an hour after she regained her balance and she was starting to graze which was good to see

One of the owners stopped by this evening to thank me and said the mare was allowing baby to nurse - so good signs there as well

The vet told them that within the next 3-4 days they would know if the mare would live or die - that once they hit the 4 day mark, they were usually home free after that

They are such nice people and the filly is just adorable - I hope that Momma can pull through and they arent faced with an orphan foal situation

What are the odds / statistics for this mare making it or are there so many variables its hard to say for sure???

[Jos]

50%

[back_in_the_saddle]

How rare or common is a prolapsed uterus? What causes it?

[TrueColours]

Really Jos - its that high is it? …

This was a maiden mare for whatever that is worth, it was an attended birth, baby came out fine and was almost 100% out when the mare gave one more push and expelled both the baby and the uterus at the same time

A friend that happened by was there with the owners and she works on a TB farm where they regularily foal out 30-50 mares a year, she sent the young fellow in to call the vet, she sent the owner to my place to see if I had colostrum and she stayed with the mare and foal

Ths was late morning when mares dont usually foal and I shudder to think what would have happened if they were working and came home at 6:00 to find this awful scene

I hope she is in the “good” 50 percentile …

[florida_foxhunter]

Best of luck. I was called in an emergency by a neighbor TB breeder one Sunday night at midnight. It, too, was an attended breeding, in a clean stall, etc.

Unfortunately, the mare didn’t make it…and died within hours. Then we had the foal to deal with. I helped them get a nursemare…

This mare was a 13 year old…not too old, but not a maiden…It was soooo sad, and horrible. Don’t know why it happened!!!

[TrueColours]

I know the people that owned Guaranteed Gold before I bought him had a lovely mare named Blue Eyed Angel that was in foal to my Spot Pocket stallion at the time

The foal was breech and they had a terrible time getting it out. It broke several ribs and sustained God knows what internal injuries as well. It never stood to nurse and died in the morning

The mare prolapsed her uterus, it was put back in again, all seemed okay until Day 3 or 4 at which time she prolapsed again and had to be euthanized. Up until that point she was turned out and grazing and seemed to have bounced back

Does anyone have any prolapse stories where the mare WAS fine afterwards? Did she ever get bred again or was that the end of the road for her breeding career as well?

[Jos]

[QUOTE=TrueColours;5714467]
Really Jos - its that high is it? … :([/QUOTE]

Presuming competent and expedient treatment.

[Laurierace]

I was going to guess the rate to be much higher than 50%. I have never heard of any good outcomes unfortunately. Jingles this one beats the odds.

[chiron]

Ive personally known 3, all Arabs. Hands on for 2 of them.
Vet care within 1 hour. All three did just fine. One of the gals went one to have several more foals without complications.

Best of Luck & lots of Jingles for your friends mare & foal.

[allanglos]

I had one, an Arabian, back in the '80’s. She fully recovered.

[DressageOPhobia]

what is the mortality

Check grass tentany on the internet.
Lots of information,usually as a result of calcium magnesium balance being out of whack in the pasture? Check Pat Colebys book about this.

First thing the vet does is inject calcium into an animal that prolapses. Had a cow that this happened to, but she never got up after repaired and worked on and ultimately put her down.

[acottongim]

I do know of a mare that prolapsed her uterus - she was outside, she foaled whlie the owner was at work during the day with no signs that she was that close, she was older, the owner found her (she was actually on a hay bale) prob within one hour after foaling. Owner took mare to the vet, uterus fully cleaned and she was stiched up etc. Mare lived (surprisingly) BUT she did ultimatly founder (and this is apparently common with prolapsing? so tell your neighbors to watch for it just in case) and eventually was put down due to laminitis - but that was about a year or so later. Foal FYI was FINE.

[TrueColours]

I know when the vet was giving the owners instructions yesterday, founder was one of the things he mentioned to them several times so they are very much aware of it being a very real issue

Im going to stop in later today to see how she is doing. Hopefully she is still holding her own, but this horrific heat and humidity isnt helping anything either … :no:

[rodawn]

I also was going to guess higher than 50% mortality, but I’ll take Jos’ odds over what I was thinking.

I hope they stay really aggressive with antiinflammatories and antibiotics. The filth her uterus would have contacted with, even with the vet extensively flushing and washing the uterus off, there would still be significant bacterial introduction into the abdominal cavity.

If she were my mare, I would be inclined to proactively put her on a low-carb, low-sugar diet for the next 2-3 weeks and use hay tested to be low-sugar high protein.

I, personally, would be rather hesitant to breed the mare again.

I really hope the mare pulls through.

[chiron]

[QUOTE=rodawn;5716104]

I hope they stay really aggressive with antiinflammatories and antibiotics. The filth her uterus would have contacted with, even with the vet extensively flushing and washing the uterus off, there would still be significant bacterial introduction into the abdominal cavity. [/QUOTE]

No.,as far as I know (at least with the ones I dealt with), when the uterus prolapses, it turns inside out… So the contamination is to the inside, where the baby was. Still serious, of course, but no abdominal cavity involvement, Thank goodness.

[Commander_Cody]

Lost my wonderful draft mare when she prolapsed, wasn’t treated promptly enough by the vet (I found her with a high fever the next day when I went to see the foal - was out of town the day of foaling). Could have treated the infection but she foundered and in such a big heavy horse I let her go rather than try to get her through the founder. 3 day old orphan went off to orphan foal farm where she was beautifully raised and is now a cool 5 yr old heading off to her first big dressage show. So yes, founder is a big risk, particularly with any high fever from infection. Treat preventively as best you can.

[Gindarkh]

[QUOTE=TrueColours;5714599]
Does anyone have any prolapse stories where the mare WAS fine afterwards? Did she ever get bred again or was that the end of the road for her breeding career as well?[/QUOTE]

Yes. Had a 10-year old mare abort and prolapse back in 2001, out in run-in shed in the middle of the night. The uterus was in total filth. Foal’s body was chewed on by a coyote while mare was down, why it didn’t attack the mare I have no idea. Vet on-call was a small-animal guy, I thought he would euthanize her when he arrived but he said “let’s try”. Got her up, washed it off with Nolvasan and a 5-gallon jug of bottled water, stuffed it back in, she was on antibiotics for two weeks, never had one single complication. Went on to have two more healthy beautiful foals later. Would not have believed it if I hadn’t lived through it.

Thinking good thoughts for that mare…

[Nlevie]

Wow Gindarkh - what an ordeal - did the foal survive ?

[TrueColours]

Wow Gindarkh - that is an incredible story!!!

I, too, hope the foal made it but it doesnt sound like it from your description …

[Nootka]

sounds like the foal was aborted