Blood Test of Pregnant Mare

[DunPainted]

For those of you who draw blood to determine a mare's pregnancy..... When (how many days post conception) does your vet conduct the lab test to confirm?

My friend who raises Friesians stated that blood tests for mare pregnancy can only be accurate after 120 from conception. Is this true for minis?

Many thanks.

Cindy

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

I still haven't figured out which hormone or substance they test for in these pregnancy tests. Blood is routinely drawn by vets to make sure that the CL is producing enough progesterone to sustain pregnancy, but this is not a pregnancy test. As far as I know there is no reliable pregnancy test that can be tested for through blood. If there was, everyone would be using it and vets wouldn't be used for their palpation skills. There are tests out there, but they don't tell you what they are testing for and from what I've heard they aren't very accurate.

 

[Margot]

I have used the estrone sulfate sp? test which you have to wait until 120 days. It is not cheaper than ultrasound and not 100% accurate but I have had good results in the past with it.

 

[alphahorses]

I had a 33" mini mare that was showing no signs of getting a bag in what was supposed to be her 10th month. Also didn't look at all pregnant. My vet at the time (equine specialist) was not comfortable doing an exam on her, and did't have ultrasound equipment, so he did a blood test.

Results came back that there was no way - NO WAY he said - she could be pregnant. I was very disappointed.

Until a month later when she had a healthy foal.

My current vet - who knows more about minis - said that she does not believe the blood tests are accurate on minis. That they will tell you if the mare IS pregnant, but not necessarily if they are NOT pregnant. (i.e. you can get a false negative). But then she is one of those rare vets that recognizes that miniature horses are NOT just little version of big horses - that they are unique in some ways in terms of their physiology.

Just my personal experience...

 

[Becky]

Cindy,

I bought a mare a year ago winter that was to be open. Upon arrival here, I thought she looked rather large for an open mare and scheduled my vet out to check her. Palpation revealed that she was quite pregnant and she foaled a cute little filly in May of 07. When I told the seller, she was very unhappy as her vet had done 3 bloodtests of some sort all showing the mare to be open. I certainly wouldn't rely on anything other than palpation or ultrasound to tell me whether a mare was in foal or not. JMO

 

[Birchcrestminis]

Two times I have had blood tests on my mini mares.

Both times the tests were right. The test was for estrogen sulfate

conducted by Cornell Univ. At around 150 days . One test came back

pregnant - she was. The other came back not pregnant - right again.

So that is my limited experience with blood tests. And the testing itself

was only $25! I will definetely use this test again.

 

[weerunner]

Ahh, a fun topic indeed. I blood tested both my bred mares this year at and the vet called and said one was preggers (day 86) and one wasn't (day 103). That didn't seem right to me as the negative mare has refused my stallion outright (she was bred to an outside stallion). So I called and asked them to give me the numbers. The positive mare had a level of 80ng/ml, and the negative mare had 15.8ng/ml of Estrone Sulphate. The lab conducting the tests set the 'pregnant level' at greater than 20. So I looked into the negative mares past and found she delivered a foal when she tested at 10 in the past, and that vet had said she was pregnant. So I guess it depends on the knowledge of the vet. I called the veterinary university near here and they all agreed that 15.8 WAS indeed pregnant. So I'm assuming I've got two mares in foal for 2009, but who knows!!!! I'm beginning to think that next year I'll US everyone.

 

[targetsmom]

I have used the Pregnamare home testing kits that test for "PMSG" or Pregnant Mare Serum Gonadotroin from 40-100 days of pregnancy. They have been accurate for me and were confirmed by ultrasound. Also easy and inexpensive. I have also used the Wee Foal urine test (beyond 120 days I think it is) and I like that one because it can detect a false pregnancy. Also easy and inexpensive. I would think that combining the two tests, if you didn't have access to ultrasound, would give you a pretty good idea if a mare was pregnant or not.

 

[barnbum]

100-140 days. I always have blood drawn when my 2nd mare is 100 days--the other is usually 20 days ahead. Works every time for me.

 

[normajeanbaker]

My vet told me 100 days for the blood test to be accurate. We tested a mare almost exactly 100 days after she was bred(our vet wont ultrasound a Mini) and it was 100% right on the money.

~Jen~