Regumate Question

[wendi leigh]

I know this has been discussed on here before, but I'd like to know some specifics. For those of you that do not stop giving Regumate, are the mares' gestations longer than normal, i.e., how many days have the mares carried before deliverying? For those of you that stop giving Regumate, at what day do you stop giving the Regumate and how many days later did the mare end up foaling?

I've had one vet tell me to stop it 30 days before foaling and another say it is ok to leave her on it until she foals, and I just don't know what to do. This is a mare that aborted last year from placentitis. I'm afraid that stopping now (do you do it cold turkey or wean them off) will cause her to deliver before everything else in her body gets ready. So my feeling seems to be, why look for trouble if I know she can stay on it and still deliver normally.

Thanks for your input.

 

[Joanne]

Hi Wendy,

This can be confusing. The suggestions from both veterinarians are normal and either way can be done.

You want to wean them off slowly, not abruptly stop Regumate, should you choose that route.

They will foal even while on Regumate, and some people choose to continue until they foal, or stop when they are in a safe zone (in a mini after 320 days start weaning them off).

Placentitis is an infection though, and I assume antibiotice were given to your mare. Some people will give antibiotics periodically to a mare that has a history of aborting during her pregnancy as a precaution.

Best of luck to you. I hope we hear back that you have a healthy foal.

 

[Margo_C-T]

I used Regumate on several mares over time; the advice I always got was to begin to wean them off of it VERY gradually, beginning about 30 days before their due date. This always seemed to work just fine. I don't recall ever having one on Regumate go 'extra long' in gestation, or, 'extra short', either.

The problem I had was that conventionally, the vet's advice was to stop it too early in the pregnancy--the thinking was that the placenta 'takes over' the production of enough of the needed hormone, as I recall, at a certain point not all THAT far into the pregnancy---but with miniatures, that caveat didn't seem to hold true. That was several years ago; the vets may now have greater realization of the apparent differences between the 'big' horse in general, and the mini, in general!

Some of my best foals have been from a mare who, as she got a bit older, apparently needed Regumate to maintain the pregnancy, so I'd have NO problem using it now, as long as there was a need.

Margo

 

[Becky]

We have had really bad luck stopping the Regumate on pregnant mares before foaling even weaning them off of it slowly. More than one mare has aborted late term and ended up with a dystocia and a large vet bill! So now, my vet fully agrees to leave the mare on Regumate until she foals. I had one on Regumate until she foaled this year which was Monday of this week. She carried 315 days instead of her previous longest gestation of 313. We've found that it doesn't increase gestation length past what would be normal for that mare. Good luck with yours!

 

[HGFarm]

I have only had to use Regumate once on a mare that had a hormone imbalance that year... I was told about 30 days before, to start weaning her off over a couple of weeks. She did great, carried to 343 days and had a nice healthy colt.

 

[ThreeCFarm]

I've used Regumate three times with three different mares. I kept all of the mares on the Regumate at their full dose until they foaled, with no ill effects to either the mare or the foal. When the mare is ready to foal, she will do so regardless of the Regumate.