Uterine Biopsy

[maestro]

We have had a few difficult mares this year which has made me analyse everything we do to get a pregnancy. Andypandys threads are always thought provoking which is brill to try and gleen and improve your own systems.
Two mares of my own have just had uterine biopsys done to try and get it right next year but they have both come back crap

One we tried to get in foal this year and failed, a maiden 8year old TB with good vulval conformation and only threw up fluid the 3 go. The other mare we didnt try this year as on loan but given the problems we have had this year wanted to get ahead of the game. She is a KWPN 14year old mare who had a foal 6 years ago.
So my question is do we give up on these mares and chalk it up to experience or is the anything to be gained to try and treat them.

 

[AndyPandy]

What grade are they? I'm assuming when you say crap that they are IIb or III.

Firstly, the thing will be to treat any underlying endometritis. Secondly, to treat any fibrosis or other changes.

There are methods to essentially scald the lining to the uterus to force the endometrium to "regenerate". Basically, you need to perform a uterine lavage (by which I mean fluid going in and being removed asap), combined with oxytocin when the mare is in season, to be performed at least 2 days before breeding when the mare is in season.

I am not going to post the recipes for the lavages publicly, because someone will probably end up trying it, getting it wrong and blaming me, however if you want the recipes, feel free to PM me details of the biopsies etc.

If you are going to perform one of these intra-uterine irritant lavages (IUIs) then a good rule of thumb to abide by is: never put anything into the uterus that you wouldn't put into your own eye; (Obviously stallion semen falls outside of this rule)

- I say this because there are people around who have put pure iodine, kerosene, or chlorohexidine into mares uteri... sometimes it has worked well, in other instances there have been severe side effects.