mare poss stuck in her cycle?

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scribble

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I dont know if anyone else is finding this but i am wondering if my mare is stuck in her cycle with odd weather etc we are having. she is normally really showy and squirty in her seasons but has just been temperamental, not wanting to be brushed, saddle on or you to get on (once you are on she is fine and works fine but is more sensitive and lacking confidence) she is normally good confident mare but has gone to pieces on a hack yesterday. all classic symptoms for her to be coming in season but she has not been in yet this year and she normally would have been and hasn`t come in season yet either. this behavior has been going on 2-3 weeks. her back, saddle, teeth etc all been checked and fine. she is just 6. is anyone else finding this as weather has been warm and now 8oC so wondering if she is confused.
 
I don't live in the UK but we have had very strange weather here too and yes it has certainly messed up the mares cycles. I had all of my foals born 2 weeks ago into 28c degree weather, only for it to drop down to -2c for a night and then the days only getting up to around 15c. We've been sitting steady at around 18c for the past few days and it's set to remain around that for the coming week. This unpredictable weather has caused havoc to trying to breed some of the mares. The open mares have all still been having transitional cycles which is absolutely not normal for this time of year. They should all be bred by now but there's no point even trying when the follicles aren't doing what they should be doing. I had some scanned a few days ago and it finally looks like they are on track now but for the past month or so they've barely been out of heat but they've been useless heats with multiple follicles being produced but ones that we can't breed on.
 
Last year my young mare came into an horrendous season - she was actually lame and tight through her back, she spent days opposite the geldings paddock, squealing, squirting and flashing to such a degree that the whole area stank of urine.

After speaking to the vet he gave her some bute to sort out her discomfort and also told me that he was aware of quite a few other mares all behaving the same.
 
Can't comment on behaviour because my mare's is pretty much the same as you describe all the time.

But, she hasn't come in season but she's looking as if she thinks she ought to be in season (does that make sense?).

The interest is there initially for other horses (which was completely missing over the winter) but then it trails off and she looks as if to say "well, I know I should be interested but just not feeling it" and wanders away.

She's just turned 5.
 
yes this is what i am getting, all the signs of coming into season but then nothing. I spoke to my trainer who also breeds and he said the first season of the year is normally a silent one which may have been about 3 weeks ago. yesterdays hack was just awful- normally so good to hack but tried to bite as i tacked her up then fine then gave me attititude as i led her to mounting block, round that twice before we stood still and looked like oh i am in such a snot. went out the yard and immediately half reared and swung round then halfway down yard and did same then end of yard and some shiny metal she seen many times and completely went to pieces and real struggle to get her past. really tense and wound up like i was making her do rollkur all the hack in walk and trot then got back and looked liked she wanted to burst into tears and wanted cuddle and she not normally a cuddly mare (she did get a big cuddle).
 
They are called Transitional cycles, often producing many small follicles. Fairly common early on in the year but usually mares are cycling normally by this time of the year.
 
Scribble are you feeding a Magnesium Supplement as the grass in May can be very low in Magnesium and can cause unreasonable, spooky, sensitive behaviour.

This mix is very good - preferable fed around 1hour before you ride
1 Tablespoon each of Epsom Salts, Baking Powder, Yeast and Dried Thyme.
 
scribble said:
yes this is what i am getting, all the signs of coming into season but then nothing.
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I would guess it's an anovulatory haemorrhagic follicle. Bloody things are the pain of a breeder's life. I have a visiting TB mare here at present - she said: "I'm in season, I fancy you, but I'm going to kick your head in if you come near me!" (to the stallion, of course!) And the next day it was: "I hate you, I'll kill you!" which is her normal not-in-season behaviour. So we scanned her - yep - a huge anovulatory follicle. Good jab of PG and HOPE it's gone next week! A ridden mare is likely to be uncomfortable in her back due to this (as well as being in a stupid, hormonal mood!)
 
JanetGeorge said:
I would guess it's an anovulatory haemorrhagic follicle. Bloody things are the pain of a breeder's life. I have a visiting TB mare here at present - she said: "I'm in season, I fancy you, but I'm going to kick your head in if you come near me!" (to the stallion, of course!) And the next day it was: "I hate you, I'll kill you!" which is her normal not-in-season behaviour. So we scanned her - yep - a huge anovulatory follicle. Good jab of PG and HOPE it's gone next week! A ridden mare is likely to be uncomfortable in her back due to this (as well as being in a stupid, hormonal mood!)
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Sorry to hijack, but JanetGeorge can you tell me more about 'anovulatory haemorrhagic follicle' and the PB jag you mentioned? My mare came in to season at the end of March and has been very tight in her back ever since. Her ovaries were scanned this time last year when I had issues with her and the vet found 'enlarged follicles' on both ovaries - do you think this is the same thing you are meaning? Regumate is making no difference, she's still very tight in her back, and the first three weeks she was on the regumate she showed signs of being in season once a week for the first three weeks! I have my vet coming out again on Tuesday to see if there is anything else going on, but I saw your post mentioning discomfort in the back I hoped you could tell me more? You could PM me if you'd prefer?
 
Cello_song said:
Sorry to hijack, but JanetGeorge can you tell me more about 'anovulatory haemorrhagic follicle' and the PB jag you mentioned? My mare came in to season at the end of March and has been very tight in her back ever since. Her ovaries were scanned this time last year when I had issues with her and the vet found 'enlarged follicles' on both ovaries - do you think this is the same thing you are meaning? Regumate is making no difference, she's still very tight in her back, and the first three weeks she was on the regumate she showed signs of being in season once a week for the first three weeks! I have my vet coming out again on Tuesday to see if there is anything else going on, but I saw your post mentioning discomfort in the back I hoped you could tell me more? You could PM me if you'd prefer?
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Mmm - how much scanning of mares' ovaries does your vet do??? A very enlarged follicle that doesn't ovulate within a few days IS an anovulatory follicle which becomes 'haemorrhagic with a bit more time.) I've never seen a mare with one on both ovaries (and we scan at least 20 mares a year.) And Regumate is not the 'treatment' that will shift them.
 
Thank you for your reply JanetGeorge. Now you've got me wondering about vet... I'm convinced the regumate is doing nothing to sort the problem and am wondering if I might be better taking her to see the guy at our local AI centre? But then I'm also worried that perhaps her issues are nothing to do with ovaries and something else is going on. I'll give you a quick run down of my mare's very long story and see what you think....

-bought in Feb 2012, out of work for 6 months, age rising 6.
-Began riding beginning of March, walking to build fitness. Fine for 4 weeks.
-Problems began end of Mar/beginning of April
- Problems were ridden only, napping, trying to spin and ****** off, and weirdly, twitching all over her body - as if she had lots of flies on her. Twitching was at it's worst one day when I was riding and she was continually 'squirting'
- vet came out, scanned ovaries and reported back to me that one ovary had 3 enlarged follicles, the other had 4 and that her ovaries were inflamed. He said it was not an unreasonable assumption that this was causing her discomfort and therefore the evasive behaviour when ridden.
-Vet prescribed regumate and referred her to physio to loosen her very tight back.
-Neither of the above made any difference.
-YM and vet then suggested that perhaps she was just trying it on, being a new pony to me. So it was suggested that I should 'man-up' and ride her through it.
-Kept her on the regumate at vet's advice, spent the summer having lots of lessons which entailed lots of temper tantrums from pony. It was a challenge just to keep 4 feet where they should be and not get chucked off. Meanwhile, my confidence was plummeting...
- Took her off regumate early Sept. She had one season where she was a pain to ride - really spooky, carrying on.
-Then she became a lovely, lovely pony. Continued lessons over winter and had her out to lots of clinics and riding club things. She came on leaps and bounds - working from behind, soft and swinging through her back, she learnt to showjump, fab, fab pony!
- Hit a problem again last week of Nov/early dec where she very suddenly became really tight in her back and wanted to be ridden on a long rein with nose on the ground. This culminated in her rolling on the road (with me on board!) walking back to the yard. I broke my hand so she had 3 weeks off, 2 physio sessions to loosen off the back and was like a new woman - the fabulous schooling and jumping continued...
- until the 26th of March when she had season mess on her back legs and tail. I had a riding club training session that day and she was awful - temper tantrums again!
- Over the course of a week, she became progressively tighter in her back and reluctant to bend right. I had a few things booked that week where we were out in the trailer and she began to struggle with left hand bends - was scraping her right hind down trailer wall trying to stay upright.
-Spoke to vet on phone who said put her back on the regumate and get physio again.
-She felt marginally better for 2 days after the physio, but didn't last long.
- First 3 weeks of regumate she had season mess down legs and tail once a week.
-vet said to try doubling the dose of regumate.
- on day 13 of double the dose of regumate she had a little bit of sticky season type mess on legs and tail - less than on previous occasions.
- tried riding her in walk for 20 mins the following day and she was not happy - stamping front feet, body twitching and threatening to roll. (this was friday night)
-Its now been about 7 weeks since this all kicked off with her at the end of march - she's lost condition and has excessively worn the outer edge of her hind shoes which has never happened before. I can see when she is walked up for me that her gait is different - she's scuffing her back feet along the ground where she usually has quite elevated paces.

I have now reached the point where I can say to the vet that I've tried the regumate as she said but I'm not happy and pony is obviously sore.

You mentioned that regumate is not the way to treat enlarged follicles - what should I be asking my vet for?

As i said at the beginning, I now wonder if I should contact the local AI vet as he is obviously more experienced in scanning / dealing with mares. But I am worried that maybe this isn't a hormonal / ovary problem and what if it's something else? It is odd that she has been so great over the winter apart from the one blip. Have you ever come across anything like this?
 
parts of this sound like my mare too. paddies during summer esp first and end of season period may and september, in the winter is lovely, lost lots of condition recently, had physio etc nd not lot showed up. had chat with good vet as 4 yr old as her first season was awful and suggested might use regumate but didnt want to unless we had to and lsdo said about marbles but again not really wanting to go down that route. my vet is AI person too. left her as 4 yr old as she improved. today she seems really quiete but no signs of being in season. I am away from next weekend for 12 days so plan to see how we go this week then 2 weeks off then see. poss get vet if needed
 
It sounds like she may have an ongoing back problem - have you had her loked at by a chiropractor even a second physio?

You could also consider having her spayed - this will end the seasons completely. Or you could put her on a hormone treatment. I did this to my only mare in the school as she was evil when coming into season and would frighten her little riders by her squealing and reversing into the geldings. It worked really well.
 
That's interesting scribble, they do sound similar. My girl is being scanned by an AI vet this evening so fingers crossed I get some answers that will help my girlie!
 
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