False Pregnancy or Lost a Foal

[Tab]

Jamie is my tiny princess. She is cute, sweet, and a little full of herself. A diva. She took advantage of her tininess and squeezed through a gate this May. A one-time exposure to a stallion that is now gelded and she has been out of heat since. Until yesterday, four months later. She is throwing herself at the boys in desperation and they are responding to her. Another sign that she may have slipped a foal is that 2 days ago I saw a turkey vulture flying nearby, although that could be entirely circumstantial. Updrafts?

I checked the pasture pretty thoroughly but I'm guessing that if she had lost a foal the evidence would have been long gone by now. I'm just assuming she lost the foal. She is an 11-year-old maiden and it could be a blessing in disguise, it wasn't planned and the stallion was much, much larger. I could have lost them both in foaling . I have mixed feelings, and a surprising sadness. The stallion is now gelded, we could have seen what he produced. I love this little mare, she is just perfect in her tininess. Everything is tiny about and delicate about her. I had been talking to her belly, as I have done with all of my pregnant mares over the years. Have any of your ever had a similar experience? Was your experience false pregnancy or false heat? My gut says that she lost the foal.

This sort of segues into the next topic. Jamie was the ONLY foal I've had whose mother had been given pneumabort shots. Jamie has never cycled right, and I'm really glad I have never given these shots again. Jamie has just NEVER been right in that dept. Again, this relation to the shots could be circumstantial, but I really do not want to give something my gut is quite leery of, a second chance. I know we hear a lot about how vaccines can cause behavioral problems and infertility. I know that anything is possible, I know a lot of families in this day and age where one sibling has no fertility issues and the other has very serious issues. It is not related to overall health either, it just seems to be a 50/50 type of event in modern times.

Thanks for reading, I would love to hear your views and experiences.

 

[Kizmet]

So sorry to hear that she may have lost her foal.

I've lost a few over the years so I know the feeling. I've also had, as strange as it sounds, several mares who have appeared to be in season (heat) and have even let the stallion serve them whilst already in foal. I even had one mare give birth two days after she was served. I asked my vet about it and he couldn't help me figure it out. May not be any relation to your little girl, but thought I'd share anyway. Maybe it'd settle your mind to have her pregnancy tested?

 

[Ridgerunner]

A few years ago I had a mare that I assumed was in foal, since she hadn't shown heat since being bred. Well, down in the late summer, I saw her showing full blown heat to the stallion, so I chalked it up to a slipped foal. She would've been about 4 months along at the time. The next spring while I was brushing off that winter hair, I moved her tail out of the way and behold there was a small udder! She was a maiden, so I knew that wasn't normal! Hubby thought I'd finally lost what was left of my mind! About a week later, she presented me with a tiny bay appy colt! So your little mare might still be in foal. And as for her being an 'older' tiny maiden, I had one of those give me a tiny little bay pintaloosa filly this spring! With no problems. Also an accidental breeding, and I was scared to death for her! But she did great, and is a wonderul little mama!

 

[Minimor]

I've had a mare or two that was bred, didn't show back on the next cycle but did show back on what would have been the next cycle. I have no idea if these mares did catch & then slipped the foal between 3 and 6 weeks, or if they just didn't show heat on that next cycle, for whatever reason. Any that I have had come back into heat after breeding did in fact turn out to be open.

As for the Pneumabort-K vaccines--I have never had any qualms about giving the vaccine to bred mares. I have never had any problems with mares that I have given the vaccine to. Locally there have been so many mares vaccinated with Pneumabort-K with no ill effects from the vaccine that I have to say I consider the vaccine to be safe. A breeder who has never given the vaccine and says that they have never had rhino related abortions or foal deaths have been lucky that their mares have never been infected with the form of EHV that causes abortions. If your mares do not become infected with the virus they will not need the Pneumabort-K vaccine. If they are not vaccinated and do become infected, there will be nothing that you can do to stop the abortion storm, nor will you be able to save any foals that are born dying because of rhino lesions. I know breeders who never vaccinated (generally because they were saving money by not buying the vaccine) until one year when their farm was hit by a rhino abortion storm and they lost 80% of their foals--a huge loss for any breeder. Those breeders have since vaccinated their mares every year because they do not ever want those losses repeated. They did not find the vaccine caused any problems in their mares.

You can never know if the mare that had fertility issues after vaccination would or would not have had those exact same problems had she never been vaccinated.

 

[Tab]

Thank you for your replies. You have helped give me peace of mind. I will probably get a wee foal test just to ease my mind. Thank you for the suggestion. Her mother was vaccinated for pneumabort while pregnant with her and she's the only daughter of the combo that has always been "off" in the fertility realm. I don't believe an isolated herd (I don't show) should be vaccinated against everything out there. I say, stick to the basics! Obviously, we aren't against all vaccinations but I think some are unnecessary and given excessively. I also owned a large gelding that would react and swell up in his legs and sheath considerably after vaccines. Even tetanus is preserved in mercury. There's is probably and extent to which these things are tolerated.

 

[Tab]

I was going to test, but decided to wait one month to see if she came back into heat. She did, so I'm pretty sure she lost it. Such is life. God could have saved me a greater sadness in the future! Thank you for your responses!

 

[Little Wolf Ranch]

I would be really careful and still keep an eye on her....I have a mare who will throw herself and at any and all boys big or small (even my qh gelding) almost her entire pregnancy. She's a hussy and drives the boys nuts even in the middle of winter. My vet says she just has high hormones and loves her boys.

In fact the most hilarious thing I've ever seen was her being about 2 weeks away from foaling and getting her butt as close to the electric fence teasing my gelding (winking and peeing). No mistaking she was heavy in foal either.

Just be careful and watch her...better safe than sorry!

 

[Tab]

Katie, I will do that. Thank you. She did lose her pregnant appearance, but I will continue to watch her closely! Dates are marked and stallion reports were already sent in.