Lami? Hormones and Regumate

[ha903070]

My 9 yr old mare came down with lami over a month ago on her fore feet. She was box rested etc, came sound and been in work on restricted grazing since.
Tonight I checked her in the awful rain, it was warm still. She was tucked up behind and very footy on her hinds so I got her in thinking lami again. She was kicking stable wall, looking like she wanted to roll, banging into walls on purpose and stressed.
Didnt know if may be colic or lami, she wouldnt let me touch her back legs at all.
Rung vet straight away who came out and mare had calmed down, trotted up sound!!

However due to poss EMS lami and her odd and sometimes aggressive behaviour she was meant to go for her ovaries scanning on Wed, but my tow car broke so I couldnt take her. So the vet scanned her tonight.
Her left ovary is normal and she has recently been in season.
Her right ovary has 'lots of follicles retained' if that makes sense (doesnt to me its a new experience for me) and vet thinks this could explain her behvioural issues and maybe causing lami if her hormones arent right.
She is to strat on regumate.

Thank you for reading - I just wondered if anyone else had a similar experience with their mares and how they got on, and if anyone can explain a bit more about these 'follicles' and what problem they can cause? Sorry its long.

 

[Slightlyconfused]

My 9 yr old mare came down with lami over a month ago on her fore feet. She was box rested etc, came sound and been in work on restricted grazing since.
Tonight I checked her in the awful rain, it was warm still. She was tucked up behind and very footy on her hinds so I got her in thinking lami again. She was kicking stable wall, looking like she wanted to roll, banging into walls on purpose and stressed.
Didnt know if may be colic or lami, she wouldnt let me touch her back legs at all.
Rung vet straight away who came out and mare had calmed down, trotted up sound!!

However due to poss EMS lami and her odd and sometimes aggressive behaviour she was meant to go for her ovaries scanning on Wed, but my tow car broke so I couldnt take her. So the vet scanned her tonight.
Her left ovary is normal and she has recently been in season.
Her right ovary has 'lots of follicles retained' if that makes sense (doesnt to me its a new experience for me) and vet thinks this could explain her behvioural issues and maybe causing lami if her hormones arent right.
She is to strat on regumate.

Thank you for reading - I just wondered if anyone else had a similar experience with their mares and how they got on, and if anyone can explain a bit more about these 'follicles' and what problem they can cause? Sorry its long.

Hey, my mare was on regumate for two years as when we got her her first season she did the same as yours, kicked the Crap oup of the stable and herself. We thought it was colic but the vet said it was a very bad season. Started her on regumate and it worked perfectly.

But.......i took her off it last year as she put on so much weight and no matter what i did i couldnt shift it so spoke to vet about the regumate putting the weight on as it's a hormone treatment and he said it's a possiblity. So i took her off last sept and she lost 40klos in 3months.

Thankfuly this year she hasnt had any bad ones so vet thinks it's helped reset her system.

It's good stuff just be aware about putting on weight.

 

[JanetGeorge]

However due to poss EMS lami and her odd and sometimes aggressive behaviour she was meant to go for her ovaries scanning on Wed, but my tow car broke so I couldnt take her. So the vet scanned her tonight.
Her left ovary is normal and she has recently been in season.
Her right ovary has 'lots of follicles retained' if that makes sense (doesnt to me its a new experience for me) and vet thinks this could explain her behvioural issues and maybe causing lami if her hormones arent right.

Is that the term he used - 'lots of follicles retained'? Sometimes a follicle 'sticks' - that is called a persistent anovulatory follicle. If it continues to 'stick', it may become haemorrhagic and very large - and at that point it may be painful. I have seen a LOT of haemorrhagic follicles this year - almost all of my mares have had at least one - but I've never seen more than one in a mare at the one time. You CAN see multiple anovulatory follicles in a transitional ovary - but wrong time of year - and particularly if she has just been in season.

Is your vet a repro vet?? Scanning a mare's ovaries with any degree of competence does require regular practice to interpret what you see. For example, multiple anovulatory follicles could be confused with a granulosa theca cell tumour (which I would suspect in a mare with aggressive tendencies) although I wouldn't expect the other ovary to look normal OR for the mare to have been in season.

If 'hormone problems' are suspected, just bunging her on Regumate is an expensive method of perhaps achieving nothing - as there are a number of hormones controlling a mare's cycle - see this article for more insight - http://www.equine-reproduction.com/articles/estrous.htm Regumate supplies only one of them - and it is one of the most over-used/mis-used drugs!!! See: http://www.equine-reproduction.com/articles/Regumate.shtml

The treatment doesn't make a lot of sense. If a mare has ONE persistent anovulatory follicle the treatment is a jab of a prostaglandin (we use Genestran) - that usually shifts it. (And the drug costs about a fiver as opposed to Regumate which is VERY expensive!)

Did he suggest getting a hormone assay done? And did he mention the risks in handling the stuff if you are young and likely to want to start a family anytime soon?