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  Discussion on Normal vs Abnormal Birth in Underweight Mare
Author Message

Posted on Friday, Jul 12, 2002 - 2:02 pm:

Dr. O,

My underweight standard bred mare is still expecting. We dont know when she was bred since she changed hands twice inbetween times.

While I was living on a ranch and keeping her there, I was able to have control over her food intake, I fed her a high fat diet with free choice alfalfa and she seemed to put some decent weight on.

When circumstances changed and I had to board her out, she was put out with 4 other pregnant brood mares in a small turn out with large grass round bales and plenty of regular 12% sweet feed. She DrOpped all the weight I put on her and maybe even a little that she had when she came to me. It seems she sent everything she eats to the baby. Not having experience with brood mares, it may be me, but she seems REALLY big compared to the others she was with who are mostly chunky quarter horses anyway. I have pictures I'll try to upload.

I guess my questions are:

1. Have you ever seen a case where an underfed mare pigged out and the baby grew too large making a complicated delivery?

2. What happens in that case?

3. Could she possibly have twins? I had her palpated about 1.5-2 months ago and the vet didnt mention anything abnormal, just that he felt a head and she was definetly pregnant.

4. If she does have twins (I know its rare to carry to term), how does that affect the mare?

Thanks in advance! I'll get to scanning in those pictures and post them when done.

~Sharon

Posted on Friday, Jul 12, 2002 - 2:17 pm:

Dr O,

While trying to upload my pictures I got a funny error msg. I'll paste it here:

Invalid Referer

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You are not accessing this page from an acceptable referring page. What are you trying to do?

$!: No such file or directory


Please contact Robert N. Oglesby DVM if this problem persists.

Back to previous page



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discus Pro 3.10.3
Copyright 2000, DiscusWare, LLC, all rights reserved
Perl 5.006
[verify_postread_privileges]


I'll try posting my pictures one at a time maybe

~Sharon

Posted on Friday, Jul 12, 2002 - 2:21 pm:

Nope, still get the same error msg...

Posted on Saturday, Jul 13, 2002 - 7:47 am:

I am unsure what might be the problem but we have had pictures uploaded this week without problems. It seems that you are trying to upload a file that does not exist on your computer or more likely the file name is incorrect. Carefully read the formatting instructions on uploading images under the HELP section. Images can only be uploaded one at a time and each upload must be under 64k in size.

To answer your questions:
1) No
3) Yes
4) As you say she will normally not carry them to term and when they do problems during birthing may occur, though the 4 sets of full term twins I have seen in may life did fine.
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Jul 13, 2002 - 12:59 pm:

Here's another try then. I also deleted some dashes from the file name thinking it might not like those...

cherishfront

I wish I wasnt standing infront of her in this picture so you can see how narrow and thin her chest is...

cherishside

I dont know, maybe its just seeing her so scrawny makes me imagine she's huge. Her belly doesnt hang down low but she seems so wide when looked at straight on from the behind or front. Wish I'd thought to take that angle too.

~Sharon

Posted on Sunday, Jul 14, 2002 - 5:53 am:

The size of the pregnancy does not worry me but I sure would like to see her condition inprove to a 5 or 6 on our scale. You need to find a way to increase the caloric and protein intake of this mare and 10 - 15 lbs alfalfa a day would be a great step, added slowly of course.
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Jul 14, 2002 - 1:24 pm:

Dr.O,
As soon as she foals, I'm moving her to a new boarding stable where she'll have her own stall and I'll have more control over her food again. She'll be back on alfalfa and hopefully will put weight on again.

Or do you think it would be safe for her in her condition to take a half hour drive to her new home?

Are Standardbreds usually this hard to keep weight on when pregnant? The QH's she's with seem to put weight on just by looking at the grass hay they have out there...

~Sharon

Posted on Monday, Jul 15, 2002 - 8:48 am:

Hello Sharon,
If she cannot get proper care where she is, I would move her. As to how much danger that represents I am uncertain and probably most closely related to your trailer design (will it accomadate a wide load easily), how well you drive, and how she travels. As to how easy a keeper are Standardbreds, I plead ignorance never having taken care of one long term. I get the impression they are easier than TBs but harder than TWH’s.
DrO

Posted on Monday, Jul 15, 2002 - 2:00 pm:

Dr. O

The trailer is a two horse open stock type gooseneck with no partitions or dividers. I do drive pretty carefully. How she travels though is the main problem. When alone she dances, screams, hollers and generally gets herself worked up. I dont know if I could borrow another horse to ride with her or if that would take up too much room in the trailer if I did.

Thanks again for all your help Dr. O. I just wanted to tell you what a great job you are doing and how glad I am that you have this site!

~Sharon

Posted on Monday, Jul 15, 2002 - 8:22 pm:

Woo, I just had to share...I finally got her tattoo looked up. If I'm right, her grandsire on her dam's side is Albatross!

~Sharon

Posted on Tuesday, Jul 16, 2002 - 9:20 am:

Thanks Sharon,
let us know how it works out. Royalty even!
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Jul 20, 2002 - 2:06 pm:

Well, while I was waiting to hear back from the new boarding stable as to when I could move her in, Cherish went and fixed the trailering problem. Early friday morning around 2am she went into labor and delivered a beautiful colt with no complications! His tendons are a little lax so he's been occasionally walking with his pasterns almost on the ground. Hopefully those will tighten up over the next few days. And of course I have to share pictures! Here's him at about 12 hours old.

As soon as I hear back from the new place she'll be moved and hopefully get some weight back!

Thanks again for all your help Dr. O!
~Sharon

Posted on Saturday, Jul 20, 2002 - 2:08 pm:

Sigh, still keep getting that invalid referor msg. Guess I'll just throw his picture into my profile instead.

Posted on Monday, Jul 22, 2002 - 6:38 am:

I went and tried to duplicate your problem was unable to so I contacted the software gurus. They think this may be a problem with a proxy or firewall on your side that is removing information from the upload. One of the security features built in to Discus is then rejecting the upload not being able to identify you. I have disabled this function to see if your problem goes away. The foal is very cute!
DrO
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