not infoal??? mare at 361 days???

Surely at 361 days you would feel the foal moving? I could feel my colt 'ticking' inside mum from about 6months and towards the end (9months onwards) he would kick my hand and I could feel him moving and shifting inside her.... to be honest, and dont think Im being a cow or rude, you have GOT to see if your mare is empty or not! If you cant find a 'decent' stud vet,then get a cattle or sheep vet out - even my Dad who knows nothing about horses can tell you if he has shook hands with a foal or not!
 
cattle and sheep in the area are seen by the same practices that i use, so not much use going down that route. We are not in a rural area with lots of cattle and sheep.

She would have been about 351 days when the vet examined her. when the previous stud that owned her once had her examined vie her rectum, and they didnt know dates, he also said she wasnt infoal.

Re the vet, as soon as he had left, i was hmmm about it. saddened, but still not sure i trusted him - after all, when he had his arm in, he said he wasnt sure he was going to be able to reach far enough in.......... Now when hes got his arm in - i dont want to be hearing that comment!

There are mares, who go wayyyy past their due dates, i believe someone ealier on in this thread posted theirs went to 386 days? IF (and its a massive IF) my mare went that long, then popped out a baby, then it could be that the vet missed it. (massive IF with that one!)

As i said earlier - i had a gut feeling hence why i insisted the vet have a look at her despite them telling me to wait until the 7th June then to get them to examine her.

There is little infomation on how mares cope after loosing a foal at some point, and not that much on phantom pregnancies, hence my post was to find out about others experiences and thoughts, and so that if someone else has the same, when they are trawling the internet that they may find my post and it may in some way assist them, but i feel like i am constantly having to justify myself - which is not why i am on here. Maybe i should have posted in a different manner - maybe more information on the OP etc but it would have been one very long post.

I'm going to stick with my 'plan' with her. which is keep monitoring her as if she is infoal still, not have her out with her mare but keep them stabled closeby otherwise the non-mummy freaks out, IF she starts to show any signs of illness, or distress - a vet will be back and will be force to have another look/do tests, IF her milk goes... back to stud/brought back into work, I will also be veryyyy closely monitoring for if she comes into season - if that happens that also leads to other things. We are also continuing our 'eat food in the horsebox' routine so she will hopefully stop pratting about when loading. Plus loads of other stuff but i havent time to post it all on here as i have to start my evening stable routine as we had a horse tragically break its leg (had to be PTS) during a jumping lesson last night i have quite a bit extra to do.
 
Sorry to hear about the horse breaking his leg.

I don't think anyone is expecting you to justify yourself, just giving their opinions which is what your OP seemed to be asking for.

I suppose to sum up, the only ways to find out if she is in foal or not is to either get a vet that you trust to check her or if there is a foal in the stable in the morning!

As for info about phantoms, I don't know how common it is, I can't say as I have come across many mares go through a full phantom pregnancy but it isn't unheard of. Mares that have aborted can have milk and be a bit mumsy, there should be evidence of a late abortion though. Membranes, blood stained legs etc.

My best guess is that she isn't in foal but has fluid in her uterus that makes her 'feel' in foal but is not producing hormones to make a full bag. Similar to race mares having a marble inserted to stop them cycling.
 
the potential of fluid in her uterus is what made me decide that in time, if she returns to stud, shes being scanned first. The vets opinion was to get her back to the stud in about 17 days time, just swab her 9 days before and off you go. For me, thats far too soon, if she is having a phantom, is her body going to reject her getting impregnated etc. Despite myself and everyone around me being very eager to see the resulting foal from her and the stallion, I am considering my options about which stallion i would use if i take her back. I've seen another nice stallion but the stud, again, use my vets :(

i've recieved a rather rude pm about my mare/me hence my feeling that i am having to justify myself which honestly makes me wonder why i bother with forums.

To make matters in my mind worse... her offside teat/bag is a lot larger tonight.
I didnt check them yesterday as when i got to the yard for the evening jobs, the horse having the jumping lesson had its accident, so i stayed with he rider and tried to comfort her, liase with horses owner, vet etc so my hubby and mum pretty much did my own horses for me except i made their feeds.

If shes having a phantom, maybe her body will think shes delivered at some point and the milk will go. I'm guessing if i push for it, the vets should be able to do blood tests to see whats the situation with her hormones.
 
i've recieved a rather rude pm about my mare/me hence my feeling that i am having to justify myself which honestly makes me wonder why i bother with forums.

What a flaming cheek, I hope you told them what to do with their rudeness. I have only skimmed over some of the posts, but if you are being told to send her to stud, can you not do that? For starters they are going to have vets coming & going anyway. Secondly if you are breeding from her again then wouldn't she be going & therefore they would have to take the necessary steps to get her back in-foal. I understand all this can get very expensive, but time is ticking on. If she is not in-foal & you want her covered again, then if there are going to be problems the sooner you get her to stud the better really. If she is in-foal & you are sure of the dates, it is not always safe to let them go too far over 370 days.
 
If she returned to the same stud, it would be the same vets. I am talking to the stud again in 4 weeks time when we are going to review things. I am also though considering bring her back into work, and also looking at other stallions. I saw one advertised last night that i like the look of whos new to the area but, that stud also use the same vets.
With the vets, i may have no choice but to use them, the other practice in the area is worse at stud work from my 1 dealing with them (scan, and advice that everyone on here said was totally wrong, including some people on here whos opinions i really respect).
 
Ive not read all the replies, so sorry if this has been said. To me she just looks fat - my mare who is a good doer was on box rest for 3 months and she looked about the same size as yours. With a strict diet and exercise (she is sound again) she is back to her normal shape.

I would suggest your mare is having a phantom pregnancy. Also, i see you are in Lancashire - if you are wanting to find a decent vet try contacting SAMGirl on here, shes in the Lancashire area and i should think would be able to recommend a decent Equine vet for you who specialises in AI etc.
 
I am about to send you a PM and recommend a very good stud vet... They are a little more expensive, but I think they are the best in the area!
 
Hi, I hope you dont think i was being rude, I genuinely didnt mean to be!!! Id be mortified if I had offended you!
I really hope that you get sorted hun, maybe have blood tests done on your mare to see if there is any hormonal problem...can mares have D&C's like women do? Perhaps she needs one of those to sort her out? x
 
Please don't let the odd rude person put you off the forum!

I have found most people on here a mine of very useful information and incredibly suportive when things went wrong with Holly and really understanding when I was paranoid about my next mare to foal.

I really hope your lovely mare is still in foal and your vet is wrong but in all honesty it is impossible to tell from photos. I will keep everything crossed that you end up with a healthy foal in the near future.

(((HUGS))) and don't let the odd nasty person get to you, most people on here are genuine and really really lovely people. xx
 
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