Foal aborted

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Rollin

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We are heartbroken. Fed one of our Shagya mares this morning and found her front legs covered in blood. She was due to foal in April. She had aborted a perfectly formed foal in the night.

Vet came and had to remove some of the placenta left behind, took bloods etc for tests. After he had gone, we found a second foal the size of a rabbit.

She was scanned so we are traumatised this was missed. We were so looking forward to this foal, she is a wonderful mother.

This is the second of our mares who has twinned, the last was also missed by a new female vet who thought it was a cyst, the boss came back and pinched out the second.
 
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Awful news especially when they have come so far; I really feel for you, more so too that yours are a rare breed. Better luck this year I hope.

Many twins are missed especially if they are hiding behind the other; it's a very good excellent vet that can spot those and do something about it. I too found out about cysts the hard way when a mare was scanned as in foal until they realized too late that they were looking at a cyst; another month wasted.
 
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Faracat said:
How heartbreaking. I'm very sorry it happened. Can you ask to always have the boss out for future scans that are checking for twins?
Click to expand...

I go a step forward now. If MY vet (who happens to be the senior vet) is on holidays when I want scanning done, I call in vets from a senior equine specialist firm from a further 40 miles away. It costs - but having found a mare 63 days in foal with twins after being scanned twice by the 2nd in command, I'm not risking it again!

So sorry Rollin!
 
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Rollin

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Thank you everyone. This forum is very therapeutic - you all understand how awful I feel.

This mare wasn't scanned by the female who mistook the pregnancy for a cyst. We had a new vet who trained in French Canada and was very good. Keeping an eye open for laminitis now as the vet thinks there is a small amount of retained placenta.
 
AMW

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So sorry to read this. Our mare aborted twins last week, she was also due in April. She had been scanned and the twins had been missed. I know exactly how you're feeling x
 
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Rollin

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AMW I am so sorry to hear that you too have lost a foal. It is so hard after the months of waiting. x I hope your mare is OK - will you try again?

I wonder how many twins are missed? There have been questions on this forum before about twinning.
 
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Our mare has had a tough time. Had to be flushed out, then her milk came in which I was surprised about as they were so early. She was very swollen and sore. Had to get vet a couple more times to her, painkillers and antibiotics. She is getting back to herself now but it's been tough. X
 
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48 hours later I hope Mare is well very sad for you. I guess the only good thing is that at least you know why she aborted. I hope you have other foals due and safe arrivals for them.

Years ago when I starting out in dairying I was puzzled as to why the herdsman said another good cow ruined when she had twins. Though cows cope better than horses it usually means problems getting them back in calf. If you have mixed twins the heifer of the pair is no use. We have just had 4 sets of twins by one bull we will NOT be using him again.
 
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AMW a friend emailed me last night to say watch her bag and treat as for weaning. She seems OK, is on anti-biotics, no signs of laminitis in coronet band.

She has got plenty of milk so we are watching for mastitis.

We always wean our foals slowly over a month, so mastitis has never been a problem before. My friend has recommended an oral remedy but it needs to be purchased in the UK.

I have another foal due in April and have a lovely clean rested paddock, with lovely grass, which should have had two mares and foals.
 
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Hobo, Interesting to read your post about twinning in cows.

Last years twins, (pinched) and this years were by different stallions. The sire of this lost pregnancy(my Cleveland Stallion) has produced about 7 quality foals, another due in April.
 
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A PS, I will ask my friend in Scotland who has a suckler herd, I am sure she has cows who have twinned several times.
 
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My sucklers twin with about 10% of the cows . They can be more difficult to get back in calf . I tend to sell one of the calves as they never do so well and can drag the cow down to much. They also have a tendency to kill each other in the calving process so you have to be on the ball. As was stated above mixed sex twins 90% of the females will be infertile which is due to hormones from the male moving to the female across the placenta.
I actually had a first last year I had my first set of triplets after about 15,000 calvings. My vet had never seen a live set before. I did keep them together as pets in the orchard luckily for them they were all girls so can go in the breeding herd
that was the most spoilt cow I have ever had lol.Fingers crossed she is back in calf!
 
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Rollin

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So the question now is how difficult is it for a mare who has twinned to conceive again?

Actually in France the National Stud has had excellent data on fertility for many years. This is because ALL horses in France must be registered on the NED called SIRE, all coverings, live births and abortions must also be recorded.

I will try and find out if information is available on twinnings.
 
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I have had beween 2 and 5 mares conceived twins every year - it's rarely a problem (at least in my experience) of getting them back in foal - although we rarely have twins go on - they're normally caught at between 14 & 17 days. And the vast majority foal a single then.

We DID have one caught very late (65 days) due to incompetence - but also managed to keep it going as a single.
 
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Rollin said:
So the question now is how difficult is it for a mare who has twinned to conceive again?

Actually in France the National Stud has had excellent data on fertility for many years. This is because ALL horses in France must be registered on the NED called SIRE, all coverings, live births and abortions must also be recorded.

I will try and find out if information is available on twinnings.
Click to expand...

In cattle the main reason there is fertility issues with twinning is due to the cow raising two calves and the demands on her physically one of the reasons I usually split them up.

I really dont see it being a problem in horses!
My vet is very thorough with twin scanning in the mares and checks twice 2 days apart just to be sure. It is difficult to blame a vet if they miss twins as they are quite good at hiding sometimes. Its like a lot of things 25 yrs ago we could do nothing about it now we expect it right 100%
 
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AMW

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This was our market's third attempt, each time we have got her in foal, scanned and then she loses somewhere along the way. We actually had her on regumate on the vets advice to try and get her to go to term. We are wondering if she has been pregnant with twins each time. We are going to try her again this year so fingers crossed.
Her milk is drying up now and she seems a lot happier x
 
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