Pseudo Preggo Belly?

[Quester]

Hi, I just wanted the opinion/experience of a few others. No, I do not have a picture to post right now, so you will just have to use your imagination.

I have a 5 year old mini mare. She is 31.75" tall. She had a foal this past March. I re-bred her in May, she was only covered 2 days and never coperated again, I sold my stallion so that was that. I did a WEE foal pregnancy test on her at day 46 or whatever it is, it came back saying she was open. I did another at day 153 and it came back saying still being open. My question/concern is, she is SO big in her belly, as big if not bigger than she was at the end of her pregnancy earlier this year! She does not have fat deposits anywhere, none on her rump, her neck is not cresty at all, no fat deposits above her eyes etc. But she has a big wide belly and it is low too. She would only be at day 187 if she did take, can't imagine she would be so large that fast. The enlargement has also been gradual. She gets no sweet feeds or processed feeds of any kind, she gets a grass hay with minimal amounts of alfalfa like a 90/10 ratio, only 2 flakes a day or equal to her 1-2% of feed a day. She is on a dry lot, and gets turned out on a larger dry lot to exercise almost daily. No real strict routine at this time though. She is VERY active, runs like a little barrel horse, bucks, kicks, rolls, doesn't act winded our dying afterwards etc...so why the big huge belly? I will admit I did both wee foal tests wrong, I didn't let the urine sit to room temperature and I hadn't kept the test in the fridge, missed both those recommendations somehow. I guess she could be in foal, I guess it could be hay belly but I just can't imagine it being that big and again, she is NOT fat, she has absolutely no fat deposits or pads anywhere. So, have any of you seen this and if so, what did you do to help bring the belly down, it makes her look like a rhino. Cute and all, but I would like a figure back. Does she need some specific work done to help the belly since she foaled? Any good exercise tips? Thanks again.

 

[Lori W]

Hi, Questor. Well, if you didn't do the WeeFoal tests right, you certainly could get a false negative (I've found them to be pretty sensitive). And we all know that sometimes once with the stallion is all it takes!

Doesn't sound like you're overfeeding her. How about your deworming program? If you haven't done so already, go ahead and deworm her, but consider her as possibly in foal - use something that specifically states it's safe for pregnant mares.

You may also want to consider an ultrasound (external) at some point, so you can really determine if she's preggers. You have the breeding dates, so you'll know when to start watching her for signs of foaling. Best of luck to you!

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

While she could be pregnant there is also the chance that what you are seeing is a result of stretched ligaments giving her a belly that bulges easier. I have a mare that had her first foal as a 9 year old and she seemed to take forever to look herself again. It wasn't that she didn't get smaller after the foal, she did, but then she seemed to get a belly almost like she was a balloon, it seemed to swell a bit more every day. Partly in her case I believe it was her diet which like your mare was mostly grass hay which seems to make for tummies on some horses anyway, and a decrease in her work load due to being a mommy instead of a driving horse. It has taken 4 years but she is finally back to herself, she just needed time for her body to recover from the pregnancy changes.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Mares do not have false pregnancies. In order to get what people refer to as false pregnancies the mare would have had to have been pregnant, lost it at some stage and failed to inform her body and hormones of the fact- that way the body can actually troll along sometimes until past the due date, still running on hormones secreted when the body was pregnant. Whilst it is very possible to get one false negative, two probably is pushing it a bit!

I would say you are just giving rather stemmy hay for her little belly- maybe also a concerted worming programme (did you do the five day Guard?) and up the protein and see where she is in a months time. Whatever is going on she is not starving!