Questions on False Pregnancy....

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CyndiD

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I have a 4 yr. old mare that was in the pasture with a stallion up thru the end of August last year. She is showing some signs of pregnancy...round belly...puffy milk vein but that is IT.

No signs of softening around the tailhead...no changing of hips...no real bagging. In fact she is the same now as she was a MONTH ago.. :DOH!

Could this be a false pregnancy?? I keep watching her and nothing..I have not felt any movement either. Never really saw this in a horse, but the fact she is unchanged after a month tells me that this might be it.

Any ideas??
 
We had a mare last year (2007) that was ultrasounded in foal and seemed to be doing all the right things to prepare for foaling, including bagging up. Because she had been bred to a tiny stallion we weren't that surprised that she didn't get huge. She produced milk that went from clear to cloudy - and then she wouldn't let me take any more. We were sure we saw/felt foal movement and three weeks before her due date she was extremely uncomfortable, which the books suggest is the foal changing position. Then she just stopped making progress. Yep, she was not in foal, which we discovered when we had her ultrasounded again shortly after her due date. Then she came in heat, which we realized was the right time for a foal heat IF she had foaled on time. My understanding is that with horses, they can only have a "false" pregnancy if they had been pregnant and then lost the foal - perhaps early in the pregnancy. The Wee Foal urine test can detect a "false" pregnancy.
 
Has she had a pregnancy before??? It's been my experience (limited) and from reading that mare who is a maiden doesn't tend to have a false pregnancy.

The one false pregnancy we have experienced was with a seasoned broodmare. Her belly increased with fluid and her bag filled and expressed "skim milk". She never made a full tight bag. She "carried" her "phantom foal" for the full gestation time......and then all the signs started going away. She went back into a heat cycle, was bred, and foaled out normally the following year.
 
Miniv.....she has not foaled before, this should have been her "first". I am totally befuddled by this mare, she just isn`t doing the usual things she should be at this stage. I am afraid to let her out with the other mares just in case, but hate to keep her in the foaling stall when its so nice out...
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