My maiden , 14 year old mare was pregnant with Triplets…She was checked at 16 days and my vet pinched one, but was suspected a third…rechecked at 21 days and she has identical twins…my options are to abort the pregnancy or take her to Davis and try to pinch the other one…WWYD
Pinch! I’ve done it that late and gotten a foal.
Pinch!
I had a holsteiner mare that had quadruplets once, triplets once and twins 3 times… All successfully pinched
Pinch
I have no experience with this, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. I say pinch.
Twins are so rarely successfully birthed…so you end up with nothing anyway.
Pinch.
^^that was pretty much my thinking. If you were contemplating terminating the pregnancy anyway then you have lost nothing but maybe a little time?
I would re-take the ultra sound in 2 days. By then you should see if one is regressing and one isn’t. Or their positioning might be such that pinching is easy.
I had a mare who conceived triplets. I can’t recall exactly what day they were discovered, it was a long time ago. But we hadn’t made an attempt to pinch yet.
Vet found 2 at about 15-16 days, when back to check 2 days later and found a third!
Pinched 2 successfully and pregnancy was uneventful.
Unfortunately the foal was breech and we lost it shortly after it was born. Talk about LACK of Breeder’s Luck…
I would not terminate the whole pregnancy though…just monitor and pinch if needed.
As a non-breeder, can someone elaborate on the process of pinching?
Don’t identical twins often share the placenta and amniotic sack? I would think by pinching in this situation you’d lose both.
[QUOTE=rcloisonne;7619852]
Don’t identical twins often share the placenta and amniotic sack? I would think by pinching in this situation you’d lose both.[/QUOTE]
Same placenta but different sacs if they spilt by a certain stage. However, the eggs should not be implanted so they should be able to try? How did they know it was identical twins?
Thanks all…I am having a recheck done tomorrow and will go to Davis on Monday, if needed. I assumed that if they are in the same placenta, it would be a split egg and there fore identical twins??? Wish me luck!
Beowulf,
Essentially, the embryonic vesicles are palpated and 1 is “popped” to eliminate it. You use your thumb and forefinger, so it is a big pinch. Feels like squashing a grape. Done through the rectal and uterine wall,mod you are not feeling it directly
They are “pinched” by using the ultrasound wand to press the embryonic vesicle against the pelvis, and squishing one. It isn’t as easy as it sounds, particularly on big mares. Identical twins are almost unheard of in the equine. Twins happen when the mare produces two (or more) follicles which are impregnated. They cruise around the uterus and horns until about day 17, at which time they become much less mobile and begin implant at the base of one of the horns. Reducing a twin becomes much more difficult after day 16, not only because of the twins touching but because there is inflammation caused when one twin is crushed, which can cause the entire pregnancy to be lost. A few years ago I had twins that couldn’t be reduced by day 17, and I elected to try having UC Davis reduce the twin at about day 90, by going in with a needle and killing one of them. If I had it to do all over again and couldn’t reduce by day 16, I would abort and start over.
Good news…We just did one last ultra sound before making the trek to Davis, and she is absorbing one, leaving one healthy looking one…We will follow up with another ultra sound time next week…Thanks all…
[QUOTE=Nadia;7617611]
My maiden , 14 year old mare was pregnant with Triplets…She was checked at 16 days and my vet pinched one, but was suspected a third…rechecked at 21 days and she has identical twins…my options are to abort the pregnancy or take her to Davis and try to pinch the other one…WWYD[/QUOTE]
Wow, these are mares that would be really great for ET!
