Regumate Mare - what precisely is involved?

[Joanne]

Vici you are an astute breeder. Many breeders do not notice the udder delevolpent until after the foal aborts. Good for you to be paying attention and actively do something. It is so sad to loose them at this late stage.

Nathan, Dr Squires and I discussed a couple of my mares that aborted in the 250 day range. He suggested the from conception through 20 days before the foals were mature treatment, but noted many farms are foaling out through the Regumate with no ill effects. We consider 320 mature in a mini, so by your theory they would be off Regumate at 300 to 310 days.

Clearly finances are not the issue for breeders that use it. they are trying to get a viable foal out of a valuable mare. Some breeders collect semen on their stallions with low sperm counts for the same reason. They believe it is worth the effort.

Regumate is an insurance policy for some mares with a history of premature loss. It does not always work, but is worth the try.

 

[HGFarm]

It depends on what you are considering as a hereditary problem?

Regumate is a hormone supplement. I had a mare one year, who had had previous foals, just have a hormone imbalance one year. She was put on Regumate for that year during her pregnancy and voila! A foal in the spring. She never needed it again and has foaled several times since with no problems. It was just one of those things.

However, if you have a mare with a chronic problem, I would look deeper. Regumate will NOT stop abortion of a foal there is a serious problem, defect or other issues going on. It does NOT guarantee a live foal, depending on what the problem is. It is certainly not a cure-all for mares with problem pregnancies as it depends on what the problems may be. If it is not hormonal, it's not going to help.

And yes, this mare above was on Regumate her entire prenancy, with no ill effects to her or the foal. She was taken off about day 310 and foaled at day 344.

 

[hippocampe]

If've read all this thread from the beginning to the end because one of my mares started her regumate treatment today.

She had an "early abort" last year at 4 months of pregnancy, this springtime the same happened at 3 months of pregnancy. I call it "early abort", because at this stage of pregnancy we couldn't find any aborted foetus, but she was confirmed pregnant and came back into estrus. Nothing was wrong with her, no infection of the uterus (bacterial examination and flushing have been done after the "aborts"), no stress, all was OK.

She is at new pregnant, about 5 weeks of pregnancy and we started the regumate today.

In know the protocole untill day 90 or 120 of pregnancy, but I wonder that she lost her last two "foals" (pregnancies) at the stage, where normally the placenta should have produced enough progesterone to prevent pregnancy loss.

Because of this and your experiences, I've decided to give the regumate untill the end of the pregnancy.

There is now a little doubt about the dose: what dose do you give? The indicated dose is for estrus/ovulation-control and officially there is no indication for maintenance of pregnancy (not in France at least). In most of what I could read about this indication, it seems to be necessary to double the dose for this special indication, but nowhere it was the question of giving it untill the end of pregnancy...

My mare weights about 130kg. The normal dose would be 3 ml/day (2,6), and double dose 5ml/day (5.2). How do you manage this, if you give it during the complete pregnancy: do you double the dose? Thanks in advance for your advice!

PS: because of the discussion about pro & contre giving it untill the end of pregnancy...

I've found it doesn't make any trouble:

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: A 3-year well controlled reproductive safety study was conducted in 27 pregnant mares, and compared with 24 untreated control mares. Treated mares received 2 mL Regu-Mate® (altrenogest) Solution 0.22% /110 lb body weight (2x dosage recommended for estrus suppression) from day 20 to day 325 of gestation. This study provided the following data:

​

1. In filly offspring (all ages) of treated mares, clitoral size was increased.
   
2. Filly offspring from treated mares had shorter interval from Feb. 1 to first ovulation than fillies from their untreated mare counterparts.
   
3. There were no significant differences in reproductive performance between treated and untreated animals (mares & their respective offspring) measuring the following parameters:
   • 
     interval from Feb. 1 to first ovulation, in mares only.
     
   • mean interovulatory interval from first to second cycle and second to third cycle, mares only.
     
   • follicle size, mares only.
     
   • at 50 days gestation, pregnancy rate in treated mares was 81.8% (9/11) and untreated mares was 100% (4/4).
     
   • after 3 cycles, 11/12 treated mares were pregnant (91.7%) and 4/4 untreated mares were pregnant (100%).
     
   • colt offspring of treated and control mares reached puberty at approximately the same age (82 & 84 weeks respectively).
     
   • stallion offspring from treated and control mares showed no differences in seminal volume, spermatozoal concentration, spermatozoal motility, and total sperm per ejaculate.
     
   • stallion offspring from treated and control mares showed no difference in sexual behavior.
     
   • testicular characteristics (scrotal width, testis weight, parenchymal weight, epididymal weight and height, testicular height, width & length) were the same between stallion offspring of treated and control mares.
     

source: http://www.regu-mate.com/label.asp

 

[eagles ring farm]

We had 1 mare on regumate in 2010 we just do blood testing for confirming in foal US is not available from our vet

at what we considered a reasonable cost and the first year we did US it was not a correct result

so anyway in 2010 we had a mare blood tested the vet suggested regumate as her #'s were a little low so she was on it 3cc's a day orally every day till foaling we did not wean her off as the vet said if we did then she could likely foal ready or not.

she never needed it the 2 years before and she had a healthy filly this year without it.

So I would not consider her a quote "regumate mare" possibly she didn't need it the year she was on it.

We have also 1 year used it for our mare during show season so she would not come in heat and she was not in foal but was really wichy when in heat.

It can also be used to bring a mare into heat along with a prostaglandin (sp?) shot. ( be sutre the mare is not in heat already when started or it won't work.

by using it for maybe 5 days (I forget exactly how many days) then giving the prostaglandin (sp?) shot.

All of the above is information from our Vet so be sure to check with your vet for their thoughts, but they all worked for us.

I HAVE 1/2 bottle of REGUMATE (MAYBE ABOUT 500 ML LEFT IT IS A 1000ML BOTTLE)LEFT IF YOU WOULD LIKE ME TO SEND IT TO YOU BUT IT EXPIRED 4/2012 ASK YOUR VET FIRST IF IT IS OK PAST EXPIRATION DATE AS MANY THINGS ARE (IT WAS STORED IN THE HOUSE AT ROOM TEMP.) IT IS EXPENSIVE BUT WORTH NOT TAKING A RISK TO ME. EMAIL ME AT [email protected] if you would like it after checking about the expiration date with your vet. I hate to see it go to waste if it is still usuable

 

[hippocampe]

Thank you for the info, Lori. So I'll give my mare 3 ml/day (that's what I started with today)

Thank you also for your very friendly offer of your bottle of Regumate! But I have three 150 ml-bottles here, and I'm not sure sending it to France is "very legal". Maybe anybody in USA will be glad to receive your regumate.

 

[targetsmom]

I used Regumate in 2009 on a mare that had had a late term abortion the year before and kept it up until she foaled at 303 days with our dream foal Max. I started it at about the time she aborted the year before so perhaps 250 days or so. I don't know if she needed it or not, but I did the exact same thing for this year's foal and have a wonderful filly at 316 days to show for it. I dosed her based on estimated body weight, so she was getting just under 3 ml a day. Good luck!

 

[hippocampe]

Thank you Targetsmom. You both give a single dose, the one which is indicated classically, the one I gave yesterday starting the treatment. It takes my doubts away ;-)

It's also the dose suggested in this paper (calculating the dose per kg, considering the weight of a big horse is about 500kg): http://www.ivis.org/proceedings/aaepresort/2006/daels3.pdf

 

[HGFarm]

Regumate is used to help with hormone problems. I have only had to use it twice- once for a mare that had had foals in the past, but for some reason, she was settling on when bred and then losing the foal due to the needed hormones not kicking in, so it appeared she was cycling every other time. My vet checked her in foal at 30 days, put her on Regumate through her pregnancy and voila! A nice healthy foal. She never needed it again and had many more foals after that. She just had a year that her hormones were messed up for some unknown reason.

The other time I used it was with an outside mare that had been dormant and would not cycle into season. Put her on for 10 days only, gave her a shot of lutelyse and voila... she came in season, got pregnant with a healthy foal the following year.