Mare having painful seasons

[EnduroRider]

Fingers crossed someone can help me with the above problem...

I have an Arab mare that is really suffering when she is coming in to season. She is a cranky red head at the best of times but she seems to be really hurting for the few days befroe she comes in to season - she is bucking/kicking out whenever you trot or canter and does so every two or three strides until you go back to walk. She is not normally like this so I am pretty sure that her overies and therefore her back is hurting.

The question is what is the best thing to do about it?

Regumate? I would prefer a cheaper alternative if there is one but if not then worth a try I suppose. Does anyone know how much this would cost over an entire summer period?

Feed supplements? Will the likes of Hormonise/Oestress work? They all seem to be aimed at settling the moodiness but don't actually mention easing pain. Again worth a go but any experience of what works and what doesn't would be appreciated.

Painkillers? Not ideal but has anyone ever used bute regularly for this sort of problem? Perhaps one of the herbal bute sustitutes?

Not ride her when she is suffering? Possible but she is an endurance horse so not ideal to have to stop working and perhaps competing her. Also she is quite unsettled by having her regime changed - she normally loves her work....

Obviously I will discuss this with my vet but I would be interested to hear from anyone else that has had 'painful' rather than just moody mares.

Lorna

 

[Aoibhin]

chat with angua2 off here as she has this with her mare.

 

[jojo23]

Give your vet a call, they should be able to have a brief discussion with you over the phone, the stud vet would be the best person to talk to. Have not had a mare with painful seasons but have had a mare who became bolshy/awkward and would keep refusing when in season, spoke to our vet re regumate but he recommended marbles, basically they insert 3 marbles into the uterus and mare thinks she is in foal, this stopped aforementioned behaviour (much cheaper and easier than regumate), might be worth you discussing with vet, but they can advise on all options.

 

[Angua2]

Have a chat with your vet and get her ovaries scanned and then discuss treatment options. The off the shelf products are good, especially those that contain raspeberry leaves as this is suppost to help the cramps.

My mare is in hell for 10 days every month, she finds it very painful to even walk, any form of movement precipitates the need to plant herself and squirt. Ridden she is totally dead to the leg and takes a lot to get moveing. Once she is moving she refuses to engage her back and hind quarters and trot and canter are really out of the question. On the ground she is fidgity and given half the chance will crush you against the wall. She also goes off her forage and thus looses weight. Her last season she weightaped at 490 kg and finished off 10 days later at 478kg. Not a good senario for a 16hh TB.

 

[fatpiggy]

I had to call the vet to mine for this reason last month. I could hear the squealing before I got out of my car and she was completely off her food, curling her lip up constantly, then went and lay down in the field - I haven't seen her down for 5as thought it was spasmodic colic. She used to get a bit touchy in her back for the week before her season, and I would just hack about, no sitting trot or schooling. I do think vets do not take this seriously though. It really seems to be quite common and yet they tend to look blank or insist it is colic regardless.

 

[Purdie]

My mare was really bad for the first 2 weeks of every season last year. When being ridden she would buck, rear, plant her self an not move and in hand, she became quite bulshy and grumpy. My vet scanned her and found that her ovaries were very large when in season, and this was the cause of all her issues. Nothing else could be found to explain them, so we put her on regumate from April, just after we had her scanned until the beginning of November and she was a completely normal horse. Worked beautilfully and in hand was an angel again. This year I haven't had to put her on the regumate again. She hasn't shown any symptons at all of being in pain and the vet said that she probably won't need to go on it again. The cost worked out at £50 a month, which I don't think is expensive at all considering the fact I have a happy pain free horse who I can ride all year round without any issues.