My sweet mare has gone mental help!!

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kate79

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i Have a lovely mare who is a real family pony and always been nothing but lovely and suddenley the last few weeks coming in she has completely lost the plot!! I know when its cold they get a bit joggy and impatient which she sometimes does! but she explodes rears verticle and kicking out with her front legs and constatly goes up! till today she was showing real stallion behaviour pawing the ground really high pawing the up she goes then came at my husband with her front legs and didnt give in she kept coming till she bolted off double barreled at him with her back legs then galloed off in to someones field snorting , pawing the ground rearing bucking for 20 mins or so at full pelt! now shes usually hard to get outta trot shes so slow and my kids usually handle her but obviously are not at the moment!! Has anyone any idea?? shes kept with m,y old mare who she has now taken to beating my old mare up in the field?? Such mad behaviour for a generally quiet dobbin mare!!HELP!!
 
sorry im stating the obvious...has anything else changed.?..what are you feeding? i find that my mare is looney at this time of year and i cant feed her apples or carrots as they send her even madder. i also have to be careful with haylage as she can get very hyper on it. if nothing else has changed perhaps she is in pain somewhere. if this is completely out of character for her maybe get her seen by the vet for a check up...she could have something like a bad tooth and we all know how painful that can be....or perhaps ulcers? hope you get your old mare back soon....
 
I doubt it is pain, sounds like she is getting some sort of food that is hyping her up.
I would cut out all hard feed, when you go to bring her in wear a hard hat. Have a lunge line on her and use a chain across her nose and do not be frightened to give her a darn hard jerk with it if she does anything but walk when you are leading her in.
If she goes up then be ready to haul her head around towards you so she cannot lock on to the rope and tank off.

Give her less feed and a lot more work. Be careful for your safety.
 
Nope my mares are hardy types so all they get is a bit of hi fi light so they get something when others are fed aalways had this ;/ so cant out my finger on it! bought her in with dually last few times , the problem is not just that she rears but runs at you with her front legs. tried giving her a tug with the dually ( that i only use for loading usually) she then just strikes out with her front legs constant and wont give in, i tried bringing her in longer rein too but thats 10 times worse and shes getting the space to run at you with her legs!! I do wear a hat as i do have to cross a road too..ive worked as a groom so pretty use to weird behaviours at times but can honestly say she is actually going at us !! im completely shocked as so not in her character ! I will call the vet in the morning to see if he has any ideas i think x
 
when my mare suddenly started acting out of character very much like that the vet scanned her reproductive system and found a hugely swollen ovary (right off the scanner screen, could not get all of it view at once). All attempts to shrink it were failing for months and it was thought it was a tumour and surgery considered. At last moment it appeared to shrink so it was left and for a while things got better....... then it started again and the diagnosis eventually was persistant annovulatory follicles.

That means she was trying to release eggs but couldn't and they just continued to grow...... this means pain with strain in the suspensory ligaments involved as well as hormonal imbalance.


With your mare showing stallion like behaviour then there maybe other issues with her hormones ????

This year I think our poor mare have had more seasons than normal because of the mild winter and not getting the normal break from the hormones........ I think sometimes we forget that its not "normal" for mares to season so many times a year and who knows how that will be affecting them.



I know that it can be difficult to daignose / seperate behavioural isssues from medical issues affecting behaviour but if cutting feed generally or cutting out high sugar/ high energy food etc does not work I would suggest maybe a look at possible medical causes...... and especially of she is normally quiet, normally not affected by feedstuffs.

I hope you get your lovely family pone back ....... its horrid to see this isn't it ( hugs for you)
 
kate79 said:
Nope my mares are hardy types so all they get is a bit of hi fi light so they get something when others are fed aalways had this ;/ so cant out my finger on it!
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I had a sec A who developed total loon behaviour like this, oddly enough exactly this time last year...he also had been having hi-fi lite..I know yours having been having it a while, but it might be worth cutting it out to see if it helps :confused:...as well as the other things you are doing...(dually, vet check etc) could she just have a bit of hay whilst the others are fed?
It is horrible when this happens, so if nothing else, sympathies!
 
Tazzle-

One of my friends has also suggested this , as she had a foal 6 years ago and does suffer with her seasons a bit - ill call vet and get her scanned i think x
 
Yeah, I'd third calling a vet. A friend's mare years ago went mental and suddenly became extremely aggressive, showing stallion behaviour act. My friend had owned the mare for many years and never encountered such problems. Vet scanned the mare and found she had cysts on her ovaries, causing her pain and sending her hormones out of whack. One ovarectomy later, the mare was back to normal.
 
its worth a check imo kate ........ like my vet said, I knew my mare better than anyone !

she now has a marble in her uterus to try stop her coming into season as regumate failed....... all in all it took over a year to be sure she was "back to normal" ...... she still does occasionally season but they dont give her as much bother as they have a times over the years.... and when they did aromatic oils were what helped her feel better ;)


Will be interestnig to hear what happens re the vet .
 
Fully agree with tazzle had this with one of mine get her ovaries scanned and hormone levels checked ,it can be put right but will get worse without treatment
 
I had a mare who had a cyst on her ovaries which made her act like a stallion she wasnt as crazy as urs sounds but she definately livened up i left it cos i thought it was the cold weather but when she grew a massive stallion crest i knew something was up! She had an op to get it removed and she is fine now back to normal calm self
 
Well I have called the vet and asked him to call me back to get some advice hopefully we will get her scanned and sorted :( she was rather quiet this morning and very tired! Must be the 20 min flat out gallop she did yesterday around the field !!! :/ x
 
I know a lot of the time when a mare starts acting aggressive and stallion-like a vet will usually do a granulosa cell tumour test, which tests progesterone, testosterone and inhibin levels, or they'll do just one of them.
We get quite a few samples for this at the vet hormone lab I work at.

so yeah, see what your vet says and hopefully you'll be able to sort it out. Good luck!
 
Hi guys :) thanks for all the advice .. Vet is coming tomorrow to scan ovaries and the cell test too! Vet thinks likely this is the cause so keep your fingers crossed that my lovely mare will get sorted xxx
 
kate79 said:
Nope my mares are hardy types so all they get is a bit of hi fi light so they get something when others are fed aalways had this ;/ so cant out my finger on it! bought her in with dually last few times , the problem is not just that she rears but runs at you with her front legs. tried giving her a tug with the dually ( that i only use for loading usually) she then just strikes out with her front legs constant and wont give in, i tried bringing her in longer rein too but thats 10 times worse and shes getting the space to run at you with her legs!! I do wear a hat as i do have to cross a road too..ive worked as a groom so pretty use to weird behaviours at times but can honestly say she is actually going at us !! im completely shocked as so not in her character ! I will call the vet in the morning to see if he has any ideas i think x
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My 17hh WB did this on a daily basis but also bit and constantly tried to kick and strike. He was diagnosed with chronic SI dysfunction so was in dreadful pain :(
 
kate79 said:
i Have a lovely mare who is a real family pony and always been nothing but lovely and suddenley the last few weeks coming in she has completely lost the plot!! I know when its cold they get a bit joggy and impatient which she sometimes does! but she explodes rears verticle and kicking out with her front legs and constatly goes up! till today she was showing real stallion behaviour pawing the ground really high pawing the up she goes then came at my husband with her front legs and didnt give in she kept coming till she bolted off double barreled at him with her back legs then galloed off in to someones field snorting , pawing the ground rearing bucking for 20 mins or so at full pelt! now shes usually hard to get outta trot shes so slow and my kids usually handle her but obviously are not at the moment!! Has anyone any idea?? shes kept with m,y old mare who she has now taken to beating my old mare up in the field?? Such mad behaviour for a generally quiet dobbin mare!!HELP!!
Click to expand...

She could have an ovarian cyst or something affecting her hormones.
Do keep us posted, this is an interesting one.
Good luck with her and do keep safe.
 
mares can have reproductive issues, that can cause behaviour changes, such as cysts - I know a friend of my son's mare had something like a cyst on her ovary and she became very aggressive. The vet suggested removal of the ovary. I would at least get a vet to check the behaviour changes out, to ensure there is not a physical cause.
 
well thats good news really ....... possible serious stuff that it's is not :)

she might still be "hormonal" .... lots mares finding themselves in season at the "wrong" time of year this year and not knowing what to do with themselves :rolleyes:

I used aromatic oils from a qualifed armoatic oils practitioner with good effect with Taz's seasons and some people use herbal mixes etc.... whatever works for each individual mare. Other than that it could be revisiting any possible changes to routine / feeding / people/ herd / management etc to see if you can spot what it is that provoked such a change.

Or look at other stuff like ulcers ???

we have to be such detectives at times ........

did vet have any other suggestions other than ruling out the reproductive stuff \/
 
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