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  Discussion on Retained Placenta
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Posted on Thursday, May 27, 1999 - 6:59 am:

I guess it depends on how minor that trouble was. Do you have more details?
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Jun 19, 1999 - 12:59 am:

Our mare foaled two weeks ago and had a retained placenta that required two vet's and five hours of labor to get her to release it. The mare and foal are fine, but my question is: Will this always be her way of foaling, with the retained placenta, because if that is the case I will not re-breed her. I have had her since birth and would never want her to go through such agony again. We live in Nevada where the selenium in the soil is depleted, could that be the cause?? Hopefully you have an answer.
Thanks
Diane

Posted on Sunday, Jun 20, 1999 - 9:13 am:

Hello Diane,
There is a possible Se connection. We know Se deficiencies in cattle and sheep can cause problems with retained placentas. It is not reported in horses that I can find but problems of this type would be more obvious in large breeding herds of cattle that say small bands of mares. When in doubt have your feed analyzed. Supplementation is usually done at 1 mg / 1000 lbs of horse daily but remember Se can be toxic so be very careful.

How long, total, was the placenta retained? What was done to get the placenta released? Currently we do not have any medications efficacous at getting the retained placent to release. Yes, we all give oxytocin to aid involution but it is not clear that it speeds release. You should not pull on it to get it to release as this promotes tearing. Yes a gently tug or two is OK but no more. So treatment is pretty much confined to systemic antibiotics and flushing the uterus daily to prevent infection and toxemia until the placenta releases. It will always eventually release on its own.

I personally treat all placentas over 8 hours in duration but I have seen some writings by equine repro-experts that question the need before 24 hours. The reason I am so quick is that I had one mare who did have a history of the owners sticking there hands into the uterus who became toxic and subsequently foundered in 16 hours postpartum with a retained placenta.
DrO

Posted on Friday, Jul 14, 2000 - 12:24 am:

To anyone interested... We have had a 10 year old mare that has had 6 beautiful babies, only problem with the last three she had a hard time passing the placentia, had to use Oxytosin on all three, this year we lost her because of this. Day of birth, she went 2 hours, phoned the Vet. he came and removed it.(We thought). Day 2: Contractions began again, phoned Vet. He came and found another large piece, removed it and flushed her again, she is getting antibiotics through all this, Day 3: She is doing fine, eating well. Day 4: She dies. Was told by Vet. it was Toxic Shock and Colic due to the contractions. Kitty died a horrible death as I was there with her and finally had her put to sleep because of the pain. With her past history of retaining the placentia he had advised no more breeding her, we agreed, unfortunatly to late. We do however, have a beautiful and very healthy orphan filly. Could this be a genetic thing? And just what is Toxic Shock? Thank You. Julie

Posted on Friday, Jul 14, 2000 - 10:56 am:

Pete,
My sincerest sorry for your loss. Instead of posting your question at the bottom of someone elses discussion you should create your own. You will get more responses and it helps others find related information better.

Before you post a new forum discussion be sure to review the already existing article on Retained Placenta and the forum discussions on your subject. This is the appropriate topic for your subject, so just back up to your topic using the navigation bar at the top of this page and select the approriate article.

If after reviewing the already existing resources your question remains unanswered go to the closest topic and post to that forum by clicking on, "New Discussions" and choose a title that is descriptive.
Thank You,
The Advisor Administration

Posted on Friday, Jul 14, 2000 - 7:15 pm:

To the Advisor Administration:

Thank You.

Have a great day!

Julie

Posted on Tuesday, Sep 19, 2000 - 10:49 am:

It was interesting to read about the selenium deficiency in reference to retained placentas in post foaling mares. I have a mare that has had 5 foals for me and retained her placenta all 5 times. Oxytocin alone was not very effective with this mare. The vet was called after 6 hrs. another shot of oxytocin and he had to twist and pull very slowly over a period of at least 1 hr before it finally released. The 2000 foaling resulted in a piece of the placenta left in....it was removed after careful examination of the placenta. She was put on antibiotics and got in foal for 2001. I guess what I am asking...is there any other less traumatic way of removing the placenta. I feel I have been lucky in not having breeding problems with this mare and hopefully someone will have tried something else that works.

Posted on Tuesday, Sep 19, 2000 - 5:24 pm:

For proper treatment of retained placentas see the article associated with this forum. Then if you have qustions post them is a new discussion.
DrO
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