hormones sorry long one

[calon]

my mare has suffered with hormone induced colic symtoms around once every 23 days during the summer months last year and this year.once sometimes twice at this time during her cycle she would show signs of distress and colic becoming difficult to handle as she would kick out and stomp ect bouncing of box walls digging getting up and down ect, we found just 3 to 5 mls of sedazine would calm the attack and the vet put her on regumate which worked a treat in stopping the whole process
eariler in the year we had her away to be covered but she failed to take after the third attempt we decided to leave it until next year ,we want a foal from her and the vet said having one may settle down her cycles and stop the colic like attacks.
but then over the last 6 weeks she began to have the attacks all the time despite the regimate sedizine stil calmed things down but she would get it an attack for the simple act of brushing her or taking her rug off anything at all could start it although sometimes she would be fine about brushing ect and not get an attack which also included being very hypersensitive,she has also produced milk all summer from her first covering , i was more worried and began to think that maybe she had ulcers and was getting stress colic or ovarian cysts.
anyway vet came and scanned her overies yesterday and found one huge one which he said hadnt released any of the folicals for ages and they were all piled on the ovarie,i cant believe how this has affected her temprement she is manic and miserable aswell as the colic like attacks ,vet says her hormones are all over the place and she is to have 10 days regumate then a jab of another hormone to try and kick start her cycle to get rid of the folicals cysts ect,if it dosent work we will try again with another course of hormones poor girl dosent know if she is pregant or in season or anything she is so haywire,he says there are a few things to try and sort it but the final straw would be to have to remove the ovaries ,
has anyone been through this or can relate this behaviour change to their mare ,
experiances with same please

 

[cazzr]

I can definitely sympathise with you as I have had BAD hormone problems with my mare for about 2 years now (tho maybe not quite as severe as yours). She was temperamental before that but got MUCH worse in the last year-18 months.

However, in August I had a marble inserted and she has been WONDERFUL since so I can understand how putting her in foal would help (she's rising 7 so was prime breeding age and vet just said her hormones were strong and perfect if I had wanted to breed, which I don't).
Like you tho I had her ovaries scanned to check for cysts/tumours (which were clean) and also had her hormone levels checked in a blood test (also fine) but her behaviour before the marble was rediculous.
Most of the time she was irritable and grumpy. I couldn't groom with a body brush as it was too tickley, had to use a dandy brush or curry comb and had to be very careful with rugging up or saddling as she was VERY marish/cold backed. Riding really was tricky and a no no when she WAS in season as she was a nightmare to handle let alone ride!

Luckily for me the marble has sorted her (touch wood it's not a temporary reprieve) whereas the regumate hadn't (it did stop the seasons but didn't help with the hypersensitivity and stroppyness).

Incidently with the marble she does have seasons still but they are barely noticeable with handling and riding and we only notice when she flirts with the boys (far cry from the manic behaviour she used to show before which I'm sure scared the boys to death!).

I feel more happy with the marble as it is just a sterile glass marble, no hormones or anything. I don't have to worry about handling the regumate and so long as she doesn't push it out (a small risk) it can stay in as long as I want.

It might be an option for you if you continue to have problems once she HAS ovulated (until you want to breed of course) but it does seem to me that this is a different problem to mine and if they can deal with that you might be ok. I can certainly understand how it must be making her feel uncomfortable/colicy.
I just wanted to reply to say that things can improve sometimes. When the regumate didn't work very well for my mare and the scans/tests didn't find anything I did dispair about what to do with her. The good thing is that they have found a problem so they know what to work on and it's not simply that she is 'a bad egg' if you excuse the pun.
Is the problem only in one ovary? If so, if they end up needing to remove it she'll still have the other one so I guess you could still breed from her?
Stick in there and let us know how you get on.

 

[katylee]

my mare had her ovaries out last year. she didnt react to regumate. blood tests were fine. scan said nothing was wrong with her ovaries.(though one was bigger than the other they told me it wasnt significant) she was a nightmare you couldnt even touch her. couldnt ride her. she was obviously in pain when she was in season. so we took the ovaries out and now she is brilliant completly different horse. feel free to pm me.
i do know of another mare that was colicing sp? alot so they took her ovaries out and she was better.

 

[calon]

thankyou both for the info on your mares , i had heard that taking the ovaries works well for the mare ,my vet seems to see it as a last resort and thinks if we can settle her hormone inbalance down she will be ok again ,i believe she started to gradually get worse after we had her covered and things have gone down hill from there and that she is having some kin of phantom pregnancy which has knocked her cycles all to cock,before the coverings she was no trouble at all when in season and you wouldnt even have known except for the once a month colic episodes.it will be a shame to have to remove her ovaries as she is a really nice sec d and has won a lot on the showing circiut she has a lot of value asa brood mare but i will do whats best for her of course .
is removimg the ovaries a big op and expensive thats a worry too as i dont have insurace for vets bills ,do they behave oddly for a while after having it done or does it bring immeadiate relief ,and do they put weight on like dogs when spayed ,thank you both for your input much appreciated