Would you breed from her again?

[madhector]

I have a gorgeous connie x TB mare who is 4 now. She was put in foal at 3 and rejected it, meaning it had to be hand reared.

I was wondering of how risky it would be to breed from her again, and if this was likely to happen a second time or if it was a freak one off thing.


Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

[koeffee]

im not sure i would take a chance, my friend had to find a foster mare for her foal this year for the same problem.

 

[BallyshanHorses]

we had a mare that did this with her first foal but we put her back in foal and has taken to everything since.we think she licked its naval after iodine was applied and she let an awful squeal out of her.hated the foal after that.you wont know until you try it again but be prepared for all eventualities possibly foster mother somewhat organised.if she were to do it again then she is not cut out for it.she may just have been too immature to even consider motherhood.good luck.

 

[madhector]

Do you think her being so young could have been the problem? I wasnt the one to breed from her, I bought her when she rejected her foal.

 

[BallyshanHorses]

i definately think it may have been a contributing factor.on the other hand she may not like being a mother and never will.on the other hand i wouldnt write her off just yet.just be prepared for the worst just in case.

 

[JanetGeorge]

[ QUOTE ]
I have a gorgeous connie x TB mare who is 4 now. She was put in foal at 3 and rejected it, meaning it had to be hand reared.

I was wondering of how risky it would be to breed from her again, and if this was likely to happen a second time or if it was a freak one off thing.



[/ QUOTE ]

Mmm - there's rejection - and then there's rejection.

What I mean is that there are any number of reasons why a mare might be 'difficult' with a foal - and if she's not handled right - she'll never acccept it. These include fear, painful delivery, insensitive interference, ticklish or painful udder, hormones not being quite 'right', retained placenta, etc. etc. etc.

I've had a couple of maiden mares of all ages be 'difficult' - particularly not allowing the foal to suckle initially. None of them have truly rejected their foals - they just needed time and patience to get used to them. If a mare is difficult to start with I tend to milk them and bottle the foal, to give the mare time. I DID have a visiting maiden mare here this year that would NOT let her foal suckle - although she didn't let her milk down until about 8 hours after she foaled which didn't help! Foal had artificial colostrum until she let down, then we had to twitch the mare for the first couple of feeds. After that, we just had to put the headcollar on and hold her (every 2 hours for 5 days!!) After that, she was fine. But some people give up too soon - or tackle the problem the wrong way.

I wouldn't be worried about rejection unless it was TOTAL (as in attacking the foal) and unless I knew that everything possible had been done properly over a period of at least a week to persuade her to accept it.

Given the many causes for a mare rejecting her foal - at least initially - chances are it WON'T happen again. I would certainly try again if she was one of mine.

 

[madhector]

Thanks for that, really helpful

She attacked the foal aparently, and turned quite nasty. They took the foal of her as they feared for its safety.

 

[sallyf]

I wouldnt write her off just yet.
One of my mares uddenly rejected her foal at 36 hrs old.
I had seen something similar before and although my vet was sure it was first foal syndrome i wasnt so sure.
My mare would feed the foal and then attack is very aggressivly (i still have the scars)
Anyway my two ended up in ajoining stables and we feed the foal from mare as required and then it went back in its own stable next door.
There was a lowish wall between them so they could see each other.
Anyway after much nagging we finally scanned my mares bladder (gut instinct) and it was full of air.
The bladder was flushed with saline and the mare put on antibiotics after which her peeing seemed to be more regular.
Within 4 days the foal was back on the mare and she then had another two back to back after that with no problems.
My mare had got some nerve damage following foaling which has caused her to suck the air into the bladder which in turn caused an infection.
We now as a matter of course give the mare 5 days of antibiotics after foaling because the nerve damage is permanent so it is a precautionary thing so there are often reasons why mares reject but often it is difficult to find out why.
I only nagged as i had seen a bladder issue in a mare before and i just felt something wasnt right .
Mare would keep peeing small amounts after the foal sucked and then go mad and attack the foal.
I was lucky i trusted my own intuition and everything came right.