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  Discussion on Possible Placentitis at 290 days?
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Member:
indigo

Posted on Tuesday, Feb 12, 2008 - 12:13 pm:

Hello,

I purchased a mare last week that is due to foal in approx. 7 weeks (she is at 290 days as of today). I noticed when I picked her up that she had a bit of swelling behind her bag, but it was fairly small so it didn’t alarm me. The haul to get her home was 4 hours and the edema had increased when we pulled her off the trailer. It’s now been a few days since I got her home, and she has since developed more edema behind the bag, the bag itself has begun to fill in (including some filling in of the nipples) she is cocking her tail off to the side, and she also has a little bit of odorless brown discharge. I am a bit concerned that the mare might be trying to abort the foal (possible placentitis?) Her temp is normal, and she is not acting colicky or distressed in any way, but these other symptoms have me worried. She is not overly fat (if anything, she might be a little underweight) and has been out in a large pasture previously, however I do have her in a 12x40 pen right now to keep her isolated from my other horses (I do this as a precaution for the first 10 days with any new horses I bring onto my property) so her exercise is somewhat restricted.

Do you think I am being overly concerned?

THANKS very much!!
CC
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008 - 7:46 am:

Your description does not suggest to me anything abnormal but the only way to check on this possibility is a thorough exam CC. Concerning the recently increasing edema: this is normal but are you keeping her up more than she was before the move. Provide as much free exercise as possible to minimize this.
DrO
Member:
indigo

Posted on Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008 - 12:54 pm:

Thank you, Dr. O. The bag is now VERY large and she has a lot of edema behind the bag as well. When I picked her up, she had minimal edema behind the bag and none in the bag itself. The difference is very dramatic in just a few days, but as I said, her exercise has been quite restricted compared with what it was previously.

I went ahead and took her to the vet this morning just to be safe. My vet ultrasounded her, and the foal is still alive, but for some reason she couldn’t measure the thickness of the placenta (she said the foal was pressing up against it and moving around and she couldn’t get a good gauge on it?) She also checked her cervix, and said it was very soft and loose. She suggested I keep her quiet as possible, and prescribed banamine 10ccs 2x a day for the next week (then back off to 10cc 1x a day), 10cc of regumate once per day until she is in the "safe zone" of 320 days, and SMZ’s for the next 14 days.

So now I’m a little perplexed. Perhaps my vet is being over-zealous with the meds? I did tell her about the change in exercise but she didn’t really make any comment on that, just told me to keep her wherever she would be the quietest. I will say that the attending vet is the asst vet at the clinic, and has only been out of vet school for a year. I think she’s competent enough but I don’t know how much experience she has with this type of thing. I dont mind spending the money on the meds if there is a chance it will help her, but certainly dont want to give her anything unnecessarily if there's any chance it would hinder her or the foal.

CC
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Feb 14, 2008 - 7:46 am:

CC, I agree aggressive treatment considering there is no diagnosis but I have no way to judge it's appropriateness. If there is placental pathology the enforced rest is standard. But whether there is pathology or this is normal edema if is caused by vascular congestion of the mammary vessels and the rest may exacerbate it.
DrO
Member:
indigo

Posted on Thursday, Feb 14, 2008 - 11:50 am:

Would you consider the softened cervix a cause for concern? The filling in of the bag, coupled with the soft/loose cervix seemed to be what alarmed my vet the most. She said she probably could have slipped a finger in the cervix, but did not for obvious reasons.

Thanks!
CC
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 - 10:50 am:

Hello CC,
I have had a hard time with this question for two reasons:

1) I am uncertain what she means exactly by "softening". This could refer to two different events. She could be referring to edema where the tissues are swollen or she could be referring to relaxation of the musculature which causes the "os" to DrOop. During estrus both of these events occur and is called "softening".

2) Though we have a veterinary practice that does a lot of reproductive work. I don't often look at late term cervixes of other wise healthy mares so the question becomes one of "what is normal". Often pregnant mare's cervix is described as "hard" but this has to change by parturition and the appearance of a healthy mare's cervix in late term pregnancy is surprisingly poorly described in the literature.

Uterine and cervical tone is maintained by progesterone and other progestagens and estrogens. Estrogens relax the cervix and progestagens tighten the cervix even in the presence of estrogen. So I went and looked at the endocrine events during pregnancy which are well characterized. Looking at graphs of the relative levels of these two hormones some amount of softening at around day 300 would not be surprising. Nor would be a firming up the last 30 days when progestatens (primarily pregnanes) rise in the last 30 days. But considering the complicated nature of the endocrine events this is a poor way to predict what would be normal cervical tone at this time.

So, after reviewing 4 texts and dozens of papers, the only answer is I don't know if your veterianarians findings represent a normal or abnormal event.
DrO
New Member:
empress

Posted on Saturday, Mar 29, 2008 - 4:15 pm:

Dear Dr. O.
Thank you for all the great info on your pages. Do you know if CC's mare delivered normally, without problems or if the foal survived? We have a mare who was only 8-9 days from her foaling date. She delivered a dead foal. She is at a large breeding farm in KY. We have only minimal info so far. The manager stated that the placenta was pink with some white spots and I do not know what this means. They are sending it and the foal off for testing and autopsy. Would you be able to speculate on what caused this? Could you tell us if the mare could be in any danger and what are her prospects for a 30 day breed back. Does she have a good chance of getting in foal again? Is there anyway to prevent something like this from happening again in the future. Thank you for you r time. Sue
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Mar 29, 2008 - 8:57 pm:

Welcome Susan,
This is the last post from CC but I hope your request for more info is a stimulus for her to post on the outcome. If you would like to start a new discussion on your mare, back up to the article and then go to the bottom and press "Start a New Discussion".
DrO
Member:
indigo

Posted on Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008 - 11:38 pm:

Hope your mare is ok, Susan. Quick update on my mare-- she did end up foaling early, at 317 days. I kept her on banamine for 10 days, SMZ's for three weeks, and Regumate up until the day she foaled. Funny thing is, her bag had gone way down and the discharge cleared up, so I thought she was going to go full term and was completely surprised to find a foal when I went out to feed the morning he was born!

Baby was very small but up and nursing when I found him. He does have ALD on both front legs (carpus varus) with the right leg being more severely affected than the left. Both legs are currently splinted and he has been on stall rest since birth (he's just a little over 3 weeks right now.) He was also pretty badly contracted, gave him oxytet and that helped quite a bit. Also, his igG was only 334, so we gave him plasma. Other than the ALD he is doing very well.

The mare's placenta was heavy and her culture came back dirty so we treated her and will re-culture on her 30 day heat before attempting to breed her again.

CC
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