Vet or just a slut?

[Equi]

My old brood mare (17) was not covered this year at all so her last scan would have been last winter when she scanned empty. No issues in the uterus or ovaries so vet wasn't sure why she failed to take (twice) I decided not to try again with the stallion.

Now I have my own stallion and I'm keeping them apart as you do but she seems to be in season and willing to breed literally all the time. I can tell when she's in season and she does a normal stint but then even a week later when she's out of season if she passes by the stallions stable she will stop and squat & sqirt and move her bum towards him and is very hard to get to move on. Then she's back to normal not being in season.

Considering it's nearly November now I was thinking maybe some sort of cysts or something on ovaries? Or is she just an old brood mare who is willing to take it any time to keep the stallion happy cause she does absolutely love him (she's top mare)

 

[Lgd]

Possibly persistent follicles - had this with one of mine last year at this time and she had 3 huge follicles on one ovary (smallest was 68mm!). Similar issues behaviour wise this year and it was escalating, plus causing issues with ligaments so she had an ovariectomy about 10 weeks ago - she was back to sweetness and light within a week of the op and at 8 weeks post-op her gait and legs were completely back to normal.

 

[Equi]

So the legs was a direct result of the ovaries? I ask because at the start of summer i had a lot of bother with my mare being very lame and i thought it was her hip/stifle because she seemed to get better after a really good session with a physio. Was the ovariectomy a big op or is it simple proceedure?

 

[Lgd]

I took her originally with altered gait and behaviour issues. Vet (now ex-vet!) only scanned the ovaries because I stamped my feet and the mare went for her. She was given regumate and went acutely lame on it.
I did a bit of digging and whilst it is not a reported side effect I found several people who had experienced similar issues with regumate. There is also a syndrome in broodies where the hind suspensories collapse near the end of pregnancy when progesterone levels are high (also relaxin levels start to rise). It can be quite catastrophic needing casting with Robert Jones bandages just to get the mare through the pregnancy. I wanted to trial her with a GnRH vaccine called Equity before going to surgery but ex-vet mucked me about and the behavioural issues were getting worse. SHe was also lame or sound depending on where she was in the cycle.
I then switched vets and as running out of time decided to explore the ovariectomy route.
New vet was willing to go ahead but did express doubts that it would fix the legs issue, but from the behavioural POV there was no choice as she was becoming dangerous.
She was 2/10 lame at her pre-op assessment and branches of all 4 suspensories were warm and swollen. 8 weeks post-op with no change in management legs are cold and hard and her gait is back to normal. I'm riding her again and so far no reaction to being in work, albeit only 3 weeks in.
Interestingly I struggled to keep her weight under control pre-op (previous vet even tested her for EMS which was negative) and even in no work for 7 months she had a crest bigger than her stallion brother and looked muscled up, albeit overweight. 8 weeks post-op she has lost the hard crest, weight has dropped to acceptable and she looks like a horse that has been out of work.
An acquaintance has had similar issues with one of her homebreds (also went lame on regumate, sound off, lame on rechallenge) and contacted me to find out more details - she says my description of the timeline of events over the last few years is exactly what she is seeing with her mare. She was already considering an ovariectomy because of the behaviour alone, and she has now decided to go ahead.
I had the ovariectomy done laparascopically under standing sedation. She was in hospital for a week but that was mainly due to my work commitments meaning I had to deliver her and pick up on a Sunday. She had to go to Rainbow Equine in Malton as my own vets hospital wasn't finished at the time so he did the op down there. She had the op on the Wednesday and was cleared to come home on the Friday. 2 weeks box rest post op, hand walking for 2 weeks after staples out then out in the field and gradually increase the paddock size. She's actually quite a sensible soul without the hormones causing issues so was back out in the normal field within a few days.

 

[Equi]

Thanks. It is something i might talk to my vet about. Her behaviour is not in any way dangerous, but she is terrified or so it seems all the time. She will fire her head up and have big white eyes for no reason like she is constantly waiting for a sock in the face. She was not really like that when she came here and i have never hit her in the face and can't imagine anyone else who would have so i just thought she was going a bit wild cause she was being a companion and not getting too much done.

 

[Lgd]

Mine was definitely over-reactive to stimuli, even those previously that would not have bothered her.
She was excessively spooky to ride having not previously been a spooky horse. She was hacking out alone round the farm 4 days after being sat on for the first time, yet she got to the point she was unsafe to hack even in company and spooky and difficult even on the arena at home.
She's not hacking out yet as not quite fit enough (only up to 15 minutes walking), but I got on her on the arena after 8 months out of work and she walked round cool as a cucumber, prior to the op I would have had a fight to get her to walk off from the mounting block and I would have had hold of the hail mary strap for at least the first 20 minutes of the ride to cope with the acrobatics.
Previously an easy loader/traveller, but became difficult to load and almost impossible to travel alone without her screaming all the way and stamping when you stopped. The day I took her to have the clips out she dragged me to the horsebox and up the ramp just like she used to be and did a 70 mile round trip without a peep.
She was also becoming quite aggressive with the other horses in terms of herding the two submissive ones unmercifully (no kicking or biting) and being very vocal and slutty. In season for up to 8 weeks at a time but not really receptive.