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  Discussion on 2 mares, 2 uterine infections....
Author Message

Posted on Tuesday, May 1, 2001 - 6:58 pm:

Hey there, been a while.

I'm getting ready to breed my App mare and my maiden Shire mare. I had them both cultured prior to breeding, and the results were light growth of Strep B and Staph coag on the App, and heavy growth of Acinetobacter lwoffii and Bacillus spp. on the Shire.

The vet was out today to start a 3 day flush on both, ampicillin on the App and gentamycin on the Shire.

My question is, how do mares get uterine infections in the first place?? The App mare was live covered in 99, foaled in Sept 2000, and cleansed perfectly, given clean bill on her 9 day check. She was left open so I could have her bred when the Shire is bred. The Shire mare is 3, a maiden, never been touched reproductively until the vet cultured her. I would have bet money she would come up clean, at the very least!

Hopefully they'll clean up quickly, with nothing hanging on nastily and causing scarring or other problems. How did this happen? What can I do to prevent it? I know now I should have had them cultured earlier in the year, as I was wanting to breed this month, but now I'll have to wait til June.

Any insight?

Lorri
Scratchbottom Shires and Spots

Posted on Wednesday, May 2, 2001 - 7:08 am:

I can tell you have not read our article Equine Reproduction: Breeding and Foaling: Uterine Culture and Cytology. I think it will open your eyes to this distinctly bizarre procedure of equine reproduction. Concerning the organisms that were found, though they may be rarely associated with diesase, they all also represent normal background flora of mucous membranes.
DrO

Posted on Thursday, May 3, 2001 - 1:13 pm:

I read it, but I was wanting some clarification. I know the organisms are normal flora, and actually I sort of question treating the App mare (given her light growth), but to get a heavy growth like that on the Shire maiden? Sheesh!

I have my concerns about the lab my vet uses--they DrOpped the first culture on the Shire, and we had to have that redone, and then it took forever to get the results back. I'm a degreed microbiologist, and know that bacteria grow out in 48 hrs, fungus in 3 to 5 days. It took 3 weeks for my results to come back! Grrr.... I'm wondering just how well the plating and ID'ing were done, and just how long they waited before reading the results....all of which can completely alter results.

At any rate, today is the last treatment day on the mares. I haven't been able to be there, my husband has handled them, so a lot of my questions can't be asked since he doesn't know to ask them. I would particularly like to know if they did cytology on the swabs as well as plating and ID. AND what the results were.

I think I'm going to find a lab of my own and ask the vet to take 2 swabs on the reculture, and send one to her lab and one to mine. I just don't trust their lab.

Lorri

Posted on Friday, May 4, 2001 - 8:48 am:

While I cannot comment on the lab, I think if you will start looking at cytologies instead of culture results you will see a better correlation between results and common sense. They are cheap, fast (same or next day), and correlate better with actual problems.
DrO

Posted on Friday, May 4, 2001 - 12:27 pm:

Yup. I live in GA, and I would like to have all my cultures sent to the UGA vet lab, with instructions to do cytology on them. It costs more, but dang it, I just spent MORE than the cytology fee getting these mares treated!

I don't mind treating them if they need it, but I *do* mind if they don't.

I'm with you, Dr. O, cytology over culture. You can't argue with neutrophils--they can't come from inadvertent contamination!

Lorri

Posted on Sunday, Apr 28, 2002 - 5:23 pm:

can a cytology be done when they are not in heat?

Posted on Monday, Apr 29, 2002 - 6:28 am:

Yes.
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