Seasons in a "spayed" mare?????

Angua2

Angua2

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Yes I know it sounds like a crazy question, but my bilaterally overectomized mare was behaving like she was in season today.
The farrier was trying to shoe her this evening and everytime he tried to do her back right she snatched the leg back and then pinned him to the wall, planted and then squirted...... this was the dangerous behaviour she had before we had her ovaries whipped out last summer.

I am still struggling to get my head round this, as the last time I saw her do something like this was when she got very, very, very stressed having her teeth done..... is this a stress mechanism? or something else.

As for the back right, I cannot find a thing wrong with it. I have prodded and poked all the way from hoof tip to back.... nothing! I thought there was heat, then there wasn't.... then there was.... then there wasn't so I decided I was imagining it. The left leg however, still has a patch that is healing from the last kicking.

She did get herself in a tizz on Wednesday, as although we have split her field, her "field mate" came up 10 minutes before I got there, she wasn't on her own as there were horses still down with her, but she was wet and hungry and felt that this was totally unacceptable!

To ride this week she has been a total and utter baggage..... argumentative, unattentive, and feeling like she was on a hair trigger in the school, backwards and reluctant to hack out, although hacked round the farm tonight she felt very forward and after an initial grumble was quite amenable.

Arrg..... blinking chestnut TB mare's.

Any suggestions???
 
Why did she have both ovaries removed hun? Was it because she's dangerous in season or some other reason? In humans, the uterus also produces hormones involved in reproduction. But I'm wondering if your mare's ovaries were removed because there was some problem with them and the new symptoms may mean that she still has some ovarian tissue in her body, either left behind during the surgery or in the form of a tumour somewhere.
 
THis is something that we wondered too.

She had them removed as every season affected her quatity of life very badly. She couldn't walk- and if she did manage it triggered the need to squirt, she went off her food, and was cycling every 10 days and if you gave her half the chance she would squash you tight into her right flanks with the wall behind you so you couldn't move, if you moved you got pinned tighter. The only way to get her off was for someone to hit her with a schooling whip!

After a barrage of tests both the insurance and the RVC agreed to the op as it was shown to be physical not behavioural and since her (and my) quality of life was affected. When the ovaries were removed they couldn't see anything wrong with them. I can't remember if they did pathology on them.

I am going to ring the vet on monday and have a chat and possibly arrange for a scan, but there is such a weath of knowlege here I thought I would ask.
 
Crikey! Poor you and poor ned too. Hope you get to the root of it but as I said, in humans the uterus also produces hormones so it could be that. Have you tried her on Regumate or one of those products? I think they're supposed to squash hormone production x
 
One of the reasons bilateral ovariectomy in mares is such a last-resort procedure is because it can induce persistent oestrus - ie leave the mare in season constantly. Hopefully the fact that your mare had the op a year ago and is only just showing oestrus behaviour means that this isn't the case, but I think you are right to be discussing it with your vets. Also echo B_o_F's suggestion of Regumate, although I'm not sure how this would work in an ovariectomised mare, and I'm assuming she was tried on that before her surgery without success.
 
Yep we did the regumate thing, as that was used as a diagnostic test. The vets felt that in my mares case it was not beneficial to be on regumate for the rest of her life (she was only 5 when we started diagnosing), foals were not an option, as even though she is a lovely mare with a temperment to die for I said that this was not a good reason to breed and that this wasn't a definative solution, as I could be left with a technically unwanted foal and a mare who was still in misery though summer. The vets didn't want to insert a marble and felt that the operation was the best thing. They were keen to keep my mare on regumate right through until surgery, I think this was to make sure they didn't trap her in the wrong part of the cycle.


Today my mare is back to her normal happy, laidback self, no sign of season behaviour (no squirting, winking etc). It is very very bazaar
 
Just a quick update, and to close this one off.

I have had a long chat with the vet this morning and he feels that this is a way that my mare deals with what she feels are extreamely stressful situations. He doesn't feel that a scan is in order as these episodes can all be accounted for. What he did say was that he would like to take some bloods next time she has a moment like this.... so probably when she has her teeth done again.

He also felt that the back right leg was just a very minor tweak, and to keep a eye on it and rest it for a week. He only really wants to investigate if it gets worse rather than better during this time.

so that that then..... strange mare
 
I know this is a very old thread, but, did you get to the bottom of these episodes? My mare had abnormal ovaries and were removed last summer, different horse straight away, but showed season signs all summer and autumn, but manageable, just subtle signs, short weeing and off food, happened every 3 weeks for 2-3 days. Stopped showing signs over winter but today she’s off her food and weeing again, I rode her and she was lazy but behaved well. I’ll keep a close eye on her and keep a note of dates etc.
Just wondering if your mare eventually stopped season behaviour
?
 
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