Anyone have their mini mares spayed?

[Hill Haven Farms]

I have a mare that had complications last foaling season. I would like to potentially have her spayed to ensure no pregnancies. I was with her until 7am went inside and came back out she had started foaling...but got hip locked and was getting up and down so much and moving around to reposition... she broke the foals neck in the process and he passed away... There was NO room to manipulate the colt to get him out. The vet ALMOST had to resort to using a feotome....(yikes) Luckily... with a ton of lube and a pop of the hip and twist, he was able to work it loose. He had to flush her uterus and we was on pain meds and antibiotics for a week post.... . She initally had some nerve damage and was "bow-legged" for 2-3 mos. She is back to normal now with no permanent complications, but I'd prefer her not to have foals. My neighbor mentioned something to me about getting her spayed or having the vet to a tubal ligation... Anyone have any experience with this?? Thanks

 

[Shari]

Its not as simple as spaying a cat or dog. I would talk to the best equine hospital in the state about it and find out what the risks are.

Here is an article from the Horse

Spaying a mare (ovariectomy) means removing her ovaries so she no longer comes into heat and has a more mellow attitude, like a gelding. An ovariectomy can be done standing (under sedation and local anesthesia) through a flank approach or a vaginal approach.

An infrequent complication associated with the old method of spaying (using a very old surgical instrument, a chain escraseur) is bleeding from the ovarian stump or uterine artery. The escraseur looks like a bicycle chain on a long-handled clamp. The crushing technique is similar to that of an emasculator when gelding a stallion; crushing the blood vessels causes them to spasm and close down, with less bleeding than if they were cut, but this procedure is very painful. Many vets now use laparoscopy for spaying. With a laparoscope, they can see exactly what they are doing while removing an ovary, and they can either ligate (tie off) the ovarian pedicle (stump), or apply a stapling device to control any hemorrhage.

Some vets are now tying off the blood supply to the ovary (controlled ovarian infarction) rather than severing its attachments, which is less risky. (Similar techniques are used in small animals to remove organ function.) This has also proven to be more comfortable for the mare. In a study done at the University of California, Davis, in 1999-2000 by Tom Yarbrough, DVM, and Chris Hanson, DVM, on eight mares, it was found that ovaries degenerated and became non-functional after the blood supply was tied off. There was no evidence of infection, pain, revascularization (re-establishment of blood supply), or adhesions following the procedure, and the mares' hormone levels no longer fluctuated.

Hanson moved to private practice in Washington, and Yarbrough continued work at UC Davis and did surgeries at private clinics. Both began doing all their laparoscopic spaying cases using this method. "During the past three years, we have each done about three dozen, and this has so far shown to be a safe technique," said Yarbrough.

Both vets said that this method is easier, and it causes less complications or discomfort. It eliminates the need to remove ovaries, and thus eliminates the risk of bleeding. Surgical time is shorter, incision size is smaller, and mares recover quickly and can return to work sooner. "Unless someone finds a way to go in there and inject the pedicle with something to make it degenerate, this is probably the best way to spay mares," Yarbrough says.

 

[Genie]

Would it be easier to have the procedure to abort an unwanted pregnancy should the mare be bred unexpectedly?

The removal of ovaries sounds tricky and painful.

 

[WhiteTailsMinis]

does your stallion run year round with the mares? Is he not separated?

I've never heard of this on a mare/horse so I'm curious to know if that is your last resort?

Would you consider selling her as a pet to a loving home? One that does not breed?

You have no way of keeping your stallion and mares separated?

I am not judging and don't mean for my questions to come across incorrectly - just trying to understand why you'd go that route with the mare?

 

[MountainMeadows]

This is going to sound weird, but you might talk to you vet about having a marble placed in her uterus - I think this has been done in the past at UC Davis and U of COLO. The marble is supposed to prevent a pregnancy from "attaching"

Worth looking into anyway!

Stacy

 

[Relic]

l was very surprised that a mare could have a marble put in and then run with the stallion all year...l had never heard of that before..this is what was done to a mare we bought and l was a little lery about her getting in foal after that but we bred her and low and behold she is due in another 6 weeks..

 

[Katiean]

The marble in a mare sounds like the asprin between the knees for women. LOL

 

[MountainMeadows]

True, the marble will not prevent a breeding from taking place - spaying will probably not do that either if the stallion is persistent and the mare submits - but the act of actually becomming pregnant - which is what the OP was afraid of - is vastly lessened or eliminated entirely from what I have been told.

S

 

[Miniv]

This is going to sound weird, but you might talk to you vet about having a marble placed in her uterus - I think this has been done in the past at UC Davis and U of COLO. The marble is supposed to prevent a pregnancy from "attaching"
Worth looking into anyway!

Stacy

I've read about the procedure. It's very much like an IUD for a human female.......A foreign object in the uterus won't allow a fertilized egg to implant.

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

Spaying has all the risks of a major abdominal surgery, but is foolproof. Marbles do not work, the instances of pregnancy is only slightly decreased. And, they tend to fall out, allowing the mare to get pregnant without you knowing.

 

[~Lisa~]

I wish they just made something like our what is it deprovera shot for horses the one you take 4 times a year and call it good..

I am down to only 3 mares one is ravens aged pony 25+ and still comes in every month like clockwork year around along with one other. A couple times a year birth control would be so wonderful for me

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

They do. Its currently limited to the wild mustang herds. There are two types of shot under development, the GnRH vaccine and the Zona vaccine.

The GnRH vaccine works by "attacking" the GnRH hormone. This hormone connects the pituitary together and is what stimulates all other breeding functions (ie its top of the food chain). By eliminating this hormone, you prevent release of LH and FSH, which stimulate follicle growth and ovulation. So, if this is stopped, the mare will not cycle. (Also stallions will be geldings.)

The Zona vaccine is more what the government wants. Their requirements for the project development were to prevent pregnancy without changing natural behavior. Obviously, the GnRH vaccine would significantly impact behavior, as it would stop a mare from being in heat. They'd act as if they were in winter anestrus. That doesn't mean they CAN'T breed, just that they will not actively seek it. And of course, it wouldn't do any good from a propigation standpoint. What the Zona vaccine does is allow the mare to cycle and breed. But when the zona is exposed, which is a part of the oocyte (egg), the vaccine causes the body to treat it like a foreign object, attacking and destroying it. Therefore, no foal.

Both shots are being produced overseas, but neither is available for purchase in the US. The efficacy period is unknown... some mares will become barren for a few months, others, with the same shot, will become sterile for life. It is unpredictable and irreversable.

There is a big moral issue involved with using either of these shots. If you overectomize a mare, it is obvious. If you can't see the scars, the first time you ultrasound her you'll see that there are no overies. If you inject her, everything LOOKS normal, so you can sell a sterile mare as a broodmare and the buyer would never know. This isn't to say that people who GIVE the shots are unethical, but if the mare is seperated from her paper trail through several owners, what happens? One owner doesn't mention it to a "pet" family, who sells it to a big breeder.

I'd consider (and did, tried to find the vaccine but never did) giving a mare who lives with a stallion a shot, but only if I kept her for life. I seeked out the Zona vaccine for my mare who lived with my stud as his companion but wasn't able to find it commercially available. One is Canadian, the other is produced in Europe.

 

[Hill Haven Farms]

Thanks for everyone's input. I appreciate the responses and information. I do plan on keeping the mare for the rest of her life, that is one reason I would like for her to be able to run with her companion herd. Again...thanks

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

Wow... its been months since I got PM's and now I'm getting lots!

As far as I know neither vaccine is available in the US. I'll try to look up the two brand names and manufacturers for those who are interested, and I'll post them here when I find them. Sorry!

 

[~Lisa~]

Interesting and I can see the ethical dilema I would love a shot like that for my mare who comes in year round (as do all my mares)

Bet they could solve some of that by maybe inserting a microchip on every mare or stallion for that matter who gets the shot?

Hope it becomes available here in my lifetime anyway

 

[Bunnylady]

The Zona vaccine is more what the government wants. Their requirements for the project development were to prevent pregnancy without changing natural behavior.
The efficacy period is unknown... some mares will become barren for a few months, others, with the same shot, will become sterile for life. It is unpredictable and irreversable.

A few months ago, I watched the latest installment of Ginger Kathrens' series of documentaries on the wild horses in the Pryor range. In it, she makes some observations about the effects of what I assume is the Zona vaccine. If the goal is simply not to produce more foals, it does achieve that, but it has unfortunate effects as well. During the time that the shot is effective, the mare cycles, but never settles. Normally, the mare would be either pregnant or in winter anestrus most of the time. With the shot, the mare is attractive and receptive every month, and her band stallion has to deal with other stallions that she attracts on a regular basis. This has the result of increasing aggressive behavior in the population, and increasing injuries. A stallion who has such a mare is put in the rather awkward position of frequently having to battle to keep an "asset" that may never allow him to contribute to the gene pool.

Because effects of the shot may wear off at any time, mares become suddenly fertile at all times of year. This results in foals born at times of the year when their chances of survival are slim. The ultimate goal of not adding to the population is still achieved, but not in a way that most people find palatable.

Now, I know most horse owners wouldn't have the aggression problem, at least, no more than they already do. A mare that can't settle because of the Zona vaccine would be no different from a mare that isn't being bred, as far as her behavior is concerned. If the vaccinated mare is being kept with a stallion, she will still breed, so is still exposed to the kinds of injuries and infections that are always a risk when breeding. The untimely foaling would be a problem, though - the mare's owner would have to be constantly mindful of the fact that the mare might be pregnant. They could be faced with the mare coming due at a time of year when caring for the foal was the most difficult. I'm not sure that's an improvement on the situation!

If the vaccines were to be made available, I suppose there could be a way to mark the mare - a tattoo or particular freeze brand symbol that was done at the time that she was injected. Of course, if a person didn't know what the mark meant, it wouldn't help, would it? And, since the Zona vaccine can wear off, there is the hypothetical situation of someone who has a mare that they believe to be sterile, that winds up in the situation with which the OP started this thread.