Advice on the timing of serving my mare in hand

[stimpy]

I planned to put my mare in foal this year and she was due to go off to run with a stallion next week but has unfortunately come down with a mild case of laminitis. She has had laminitis as a young horse (before I had her) but this is the first year with me that she has had it, but this also is the first year she has been out of work so it's all new for us. We caught it early and she is recovering well so I am keen to carry on with my breeding plans.

This will be my first experience of breeding. My mare is 11 years old and has already had three foals but all of her conceptions happened through running with a stallion for a few weeks. Clearly, with the laminitis this will not be possible so I would like to get her served in hand so that she can come home to our no grass regime within a few days. The stallion I have chosen belongs to a friend so it is not a commercial stud, just a private home although the stallion's owner is very experienced.

Her seasons seem to be fairly invisible (to me at least) so I now have the tricky problem of how to accurately plan her visit to the stallion when she ready. Should I consider a course of Regumate followed by a prostaglandin injection? Or can I just use a prostaglandin shot on its own?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[JanetGeorge]

Her seasons seem to be fairly invisible (to me at least) so I now have the tricky problem of how to accurately plan her visit to the stallion when she ready. Should I consider a course of Regumate followed by a prostaglandin injection? Or can I just use a prostaglandin shot on its own?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I would get her scanned. The scan will tell you at what stage in her cycle she is. If she's coming up to being in season, the vet will be able to tell you approximately when she should start being teased by the stallion. If she's OUT of season and has a corpus luteum and a reasonable follicle, then she can have a prostaglandin shot which will bring her into season in 3-4 days.

Once she is ready to stand, she should be covered every 2nd day until she goes out - this will usually be 2 - 3 times (unless she's a greedy hussy when it will be 4!)

Giving PG without scanning is usually a total waste of time (and PG)!

 

[haras]

Giving PG without scanning is usually a total waste of time (and PG)!

Thats interesting as the two mares that we have due to foal in the next couple of weeks were both PG'ed without scanning, teased, covered naturally and both took first time.

Good Luck with your mare. I guess the other possibility is if your friend could take your mare and manage her grazing carefully for a few weeks and tease your mare with the stallion for you when you should be able to see her seasons more easily!

 

[JanetGeorge]

Thats interesting as the two mares that we have due to foal in the next couple of weeks were both PG'ed without scanning, teased, covered naturally and both took first time.

Oh - you CAN be lucky. But if the mare doesn't have a corpus luteum PG won't bring her into season. And even if she has a CL, if she doesn't have a follicle coming up, then bringing her into season early won't create one.

 

[GinnieRedwings]

Agree with Janet 100%, but would add...

Regarding the PG shot, you may not need to scan IF and only if you KNOW your mare has been in season and have waited a few days after the end of the season. Then she will most likely have CL and PGing without scanning has decent odds of succeeding.

When I bred my mare for the first time natural cover, she was served as Janet describes... and didn't take. For all sorts of reasons, she couldn't be covered by the same stallion again and the next season, she went to Garuda K and at the time, they only did "walk in". She had to be "ready", because they preferred to cover the mare only once per season... So she had to be scanned several times, to establish the follicule size and when she was about to ovulate, much like with AI. And we drove to Newmarket, then she was served once, had a shot of Chorulon after service and took first time. We drove her home immediately after service.

Apparently, it is cleaner, and if the mare is a little tricky, like mine was - we discovered in the process that there is little point in covering her right at the beginning of her season, because although she is very happy to stand for the stallion, her folicules are too small to cone to anything - it makes the whole thing a lot less hit and miss, giving the mare the best chance to conceive first time.

 

[stimpy]

Thanks to all for all the advice, it's much appreciated.

(Where would we be without the gazillions of knowledgeable people on this forum?!)

 

[PennyJ]

Hi Having been through this with my completely non-marish mare on box rest last year, I can tell you that the stable smells different when they are in season. Quite noticeable, it stinks actually. What I would add though is that this non-marish sweet natured mare of mine turned into the bitch from hell when the anticipated season arrived 3 weeks after the last smelly stable, she started squirting at the farrier and various other sorts of "shocking" behaviour. Basically, she let us know she was ready! In the previous 3 years we'd owned her, I'd never once been able to tell when she was in season...

We took her up to the stud where she continued her sluttish activities, and they covered her twice in hand. Quite easy to know when they've gone off the boil, they make it very clear to the stallion that they are not interested. What they did with my mare, who was on box rest for damaged tendons, was put her in an individual small paddock whilst she was there, so no more running about than necessary. We didn't do anything "scientific" other than scan to see if she was in foal, which she was.