Hello all! I'm looking for a little bit of advice about my lil potbellly girl..

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Thanks for the help again. She lives out, so her diet is all grass, with new any exposure to rich pasture being added by increment each day. Ive been following your advice about putting my arms around her belly but so far Ive felt nothing. Yesterday when she was laid down it did look like things were moving around inside, but with the flies it could have been her twitching, I guess! I havent come across any clover on my fields, plenty on my lawn though that she does have a passing cheeky nibble of in the way back to her fields.. Ill keep watching and wondering!!
 
You can always have a blood test done by your vet if not too pricey.
Nope, it's only 60 euros plus the visit, but it was my vet who recommended to just watch and wait instead! The rather silly reason I haven't had a test is that I feel like we're seeing our vet all the time anyway ( she's treating our border collie for cancer, he's doing great, but we have a lot of appointments..) and I don't want to take up her time as I know she's busy getting a new partner settled in the office. Last night when I checked Élégante's rear to see if she needed another wash down, she was winking at me (never seen her do this before) and today I looked again and she's got a light-coloured mucousy discharge, so maybe she's in season and maybe she's just a podgy mare with witches milk. For now, I'm going to keep an eye on her and just enjoy the beautiful MMM foal updates! If anything changes, I'll update. Thanks again all for excellent advice x
 
Just be really careful with how "Podgy" you think she may be getting.

Looking at your Pics you have some really lush grass ,which too much can lead to laminitis. Only talking from experience and would hate you to have to go through it.

I am from Australia and there are two periods during the year , I keep my little ones off green grass, due to how high the sugar levels are.
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Hate to admit it, but thats one of my garden areas (not the clover one)!! It was too long to mow and I couldn't face strimming it all so the girls got let loose for 15 minutes a day on it.. Its back to being a garden now.

my belly woes all began with me worrying that she was getting too fat and would founder-my first pony (Welsh, Section A) suffered badly with it and we ended up keeping him at a riding school to give him max exercise, which kept him sprightly and throwing kids off until late in his 20s
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Our actual fields are a mess, winter has been long and exceptionally wet and everything is taking its time to recover so the girls havent had much exposure to spring grass. Things are warming up now though so I can stop complaining about the cold and wet and get on with moaning about the flies and it being too hot for my hairy mares!
 
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Hi Ryan, sorry for the late reply-I've been under the cosh to get finished demolishing the interior of my farmhouse ready for the plasterers to put everything back together, plus, we've been visited by the Chicken Pox Fairy, so the last couple of weeks have been intense!! So, short answer: still unsure. Long story: apologies for it being so loooong!!

Well, Els is looking amazing right now; the winter coat has just seemed to dissolve before my eyes (I've never had to do so little to get the winter fluff away..) and she's now all sleek and shiny and beautiful.. but still fat. I contacted my vet for a blood test, we've had school holidays here so she was away, so I'm penciled in for a slot  on Friday/Monday. In the meantime, I ordered a urine test, because, why not?! I couldn't get the wee foal, so ordered the equine P-test. The day it arrived, Els was very cresty and I decided 100% she was just fat and things needed to change asap. So, the test came up with a bright and clear indication of late-term pregnant. Then I spoke to another Shetland owner who told me that her gelding recently tested positive with the new test, so not to trust it... I've moved Els to less grazing . She has access to my track system with my draft mare during the day and they mostly doze together in the shelter. At night, my big girl gets access to the lovely grass inside of the track and Els gets a bare paddock next to it. So far, so good. No more milk has been seen and her behaviour has been normal and very cute. The other day, she nuzzled my top into a little nest for her nose and fell asleep-sound asleep-stood leaning on me. She really is a pony with character. We've also been quarantined for a while now due to an epidemic of EVH-1 here in France, so I've just been schooling her and doing walks around our property. The only odd thing that I've noticed was her respiration rate today went through the roof. I was workin on a room overlooking the field shelter and I was sneakily watching the girls for a while and noticed that she was breathing crazy fast. I went down to her and her nostrils were flaring with every breath, respiration was 60 breaths/min. Panic set in and I went to retrieve a headcollar to bring her in before I rang the vet.. So as soon as she sees the headcollar, she starts prancing around and shaking her head at me and leads me on a merry dance around the track (at this point, I stop think she's dying..). I finally got her inside, checker her temp, checker her pulse, checked pretty much everything and got my hair thoroughly groomed in return. Everything was fine, the respiration rate slowed right down after a while and I have no idea what that was about, but it worried me. We did have hot weather and very loud thunder rumbling around, but she didn't seem bothered by that; she was comforting my terrified border collie for most of it.. I've attached some pictures of her current physique. She was sneaking five minutes with my big girl this eve while I moved a fenceline. 

Sorry for the giant essay!!!

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Hey no problem, I just thought Id check in to see how she was. Sounds like you have been extra busy. Hope the renos are coming along well and the chicken Pox fairy has gone, last thing you needed during school holidays.

She looks really good , Id be just keeping an eye on her and see what the blood tests come back with. Some of the preg tests can be a little off , so your vet will give you the best indication. 

If you look at the top pic she does have some edema , so she very well could be. Keep us posted with what your vet says :)
 
If you look at the top pic she does have some edema , so she very well could be. Keep us posted with what your vet says :)
Good spot-I always think my photos are too dark to see details! I've noticed the edema for maybe a week. Chicken pox is thankfully all gone, though it didn't stop my daughter hanging out with her ponies all week! 
 

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