Stallion Breeding Management

[Sherry]

Wanted to see what everyone else did with their stallions in respect to cleaning between breedings. Some of the below are a few questions that I would like to see what everyone else is doing.

1. Do you culture your mares every year before exposing her to your stallion? If so do you take her to the vet for treatment or do you have a homemade remedy?

2. Do you clean your stallion between breedings on different mares or just allow time between the two? If you clean what do you use? If you wait how long (I assuming this will kill the bacteria/virus on the sheath before you expose to a different mare?)

3. Any other practices you have to be aware of?

 

[Sherry]

Anyone PLEASE

 

[Becky]

Sherry,

To answer your questions -

1. No, I do not culture my own mares unless I am having a problem getting a mare in foal. If my vet cultures and it comes back positive, then he will be back out to infuse the mare with antibiotics.

2. No, I do not clean my stallions. They generally run with a group of mares and breed on their own. A few I will hand breed, but I have found that nature takes pretty good care of things without undue worry regarding infections. My stallions may be breeding more than one mare per day and I've never run into problems with infections. If you are going to wash either the stallion or mare, it's best to use just plain water! There are both good and bad bacteria on both and washing with anything else may eliminate the good bacteria and allow more 'bad' to grow. Also, some soaps or cleansers may be spermicidal and can be carried into the mare at breeding and will kill sperm. Just the opposite of the goal you are trying to achieve!

Hope this helps!

 

[faithfarm]

I pull cultures on all mares that are open in the fall, grow my own cultures and infuse with the appropriate antibiotics if needed. If I breed a mare and she doesn't take on the first breeding, I pull a culture. If I have to put my hands in a mare to deliver a foal, I infuse her with novalsan about 4 days later; and if it is a difficult delivery I pull a culture 2 weeks later.

I hand breed my stallions and always clean them with Excaliber before breeding the first mare of the season and anytime "it" looks dirty. This is sometimes quite often, since he runs the fence during breeding season, and stirs up a lot of dust. I don't clean them between mares but I know my mares are clean. I also wash the backend of the mare if she looks dirty and wrap their tails before breeding. I have been known to wash the stallion before each breeding; can you say OCD.

Rick

 

[Boinky]

Ok while we are on the topic of cultures.. When you see stallion ads and mares must be cultured before breeding.. what do they usually culture for? I was under the assumption that this is usually a culture for STD's and a breeding soundness issue. am i wrong?

 

[Sherry]

Thanks for the replies so far.

Boinky: You are correct. When stallions are standing to outside mares it is advisable to have the mares culture (uterine culture) to ensure they are STD free and don't pass along any nasty viruses to the whole broodmare band. I always take mine to the vet and pull a culture before I send them off to be bred. This year is the first time I will be using my own herdsire who just finished his show career and ready to breed for the first time so wanted to see what a variety of others do.

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

Most cultures are to prevent the stallion from working his butt off to get a mare pregnant who can't support a pregnancy. Notice that many, many farms, most of which do not allow live cover, also require cultures.

None of the common STD's (herpes, EVA, etc) are cultureable. Most are viruses. Viruses are not culture-able. Uterine infections will not infect the stallion or other mares, but stallion infections CAN infect mares. Its probably a better idea to culture the stallion rather than the mare!

Yes Boinky, you are incorrect. They are culturing for common uterine infections which would prevent pregnancy and waste both the mare owner's and the stallion owner's, never mind the stallion's, time and effort, and most importantly, funds.

As far as washing the stallion between mares, if its been more than a day between breedings I'd just wash with plain water, just like I do every single time a stallion breeds. If I am breeding multiple mares LIVE COVER per day, I'd still use nice clean warm water. I never use soap, and never EVER use a commercial sheath cleaning product. Water is what you want. You want to remove debris and dirt, contrary to common belief you do NOT want to remove bacteria! You WANT a healthy NORMAL bacterial population on the stallion's penis. Changing that flora can actually CAUSE an infection, and a nasty one at that. Leave the good bacteria alone, don't use chemicals!

Every mare I breed, be it live cover or AI, gets a thorough butt-cleaning with Ivory soap and LOTS of clean water. If they are being bred live, the tail gets wrapped with a clean wrap. Cleanliness is VERY important with all breedings, especially live cover. EVERY mare and EVERY stallion gets washed EVERY time they breed. VERY IMPORTANT.