How many times should a vet come out?

Question

I am breeding my mare 8-27-08 and I was talking to the vet today and I asked him how many times he would need to come out to check on her and he said only 2-3 times but is that normal? I mean obviously he will need to come out and check to see if she is pregnate. I dont know if he added that into it or not. Another question my mare just had her shots done on 5-20-08 is it safe to revaccinate her on 5-20-09 while shes in foal? I mean I will obviously talk to my vet when he comes out. My only concern is that it is with in the 3 months before foaling.

Answer 1

Depends on if the vet is monitoring the breeding.  If the vet is following her cycle then yes.  Then she should be vaccinated with killed rhino vaccine at 5,7,and 9 months and tetanus toxoid booster 6-8 weeks prior to foaling.  If frequent veterinarian out calls are a problem then don't get into breeding.

Answer 2

It all depends on the breeding contract.  Some stallion owners require an ultrasound at 120 days to prove a viable fetus.  

Personally I own my own stallions and mares so I don't give a hoot I check the mares back with the stallion to see if they took.

Mares run cycles like humans either a 21 or 28 day cycle. They usually ovulate in the first day or so of the heat.  Some mares are in season for 5 days some 7.  I prefer to breed all days the mare will accept the stallion.

If you are using AI then you would want the vet to check the mare a day or so before she comes in heat to measure the follicle, also as she is in season the size of the follicle and   the cervix (how dilated) is extremely important to get her bred on the least number of straws.

There are some vaccinations that are not safe for pregnant mares your vet will know thees.

Answer 3

Your vet will know how late you can/should vaccinate and what to vaccinate for depending on her term.

I assume you'll be artificially inseminating her?  Most people do nowadays - but any way, no matter, you really aren't REQUIRED to have a vet there at any time, but a smart person does.

A mare comes into heat for 7 days every 14 days - they cycle more frequently than humans do.

After breeding, when she's gone out of heat, test her by bringing strange horses (preferably geldings) near her, but not up to her, you just want to see if she gets talkative and lifts her tail  If she comes into heat, she's probably not pregnant.  if she doesn't your chances are good.  Then I think it's 21 to 28 days after breeding, he'll check her for a fertilized egg.

Here's what happened iwth my last breeding experience.  Vet visit a couple months before breeding to ascertain her reproductive health - any cysts anything not looking right inside her?  Then at a certain time (he'll tell ya when) he can check her to determine the size of the follicle (egg) and determine the proper breeding time (when I had my mare checked, the proper time was NOW).  After breeding, he checks at a certain time - and days do count here - to see if the egg has been fertilized and is growing or whether it has been absorbed back into the tissues.

In my case, the vet told me she hadn't caught - I was devastated because it had cost me a lot of time and money to get to that point.  We had determined he wouldn't need to see her during her pregnancy at any point when we discussed what to expect.  As it turns out, in about March of the following year - my mare who hadn't been fat a day in her life was looking awfully wide - like a hay belly.

I called the vet for routine spring shots (which I do remember him dispensing to the pregnant mare without worry) and June 25th she gave birth to a perfect buckskin filly.

Can I share another experience related to this?  I had intended to sell that filly to make some money to justify keeping the mare as she was a broodmare.  The bloodlines and markings of the filly should have been able to command close to $3000 based on similar horses being sold by friends, on the internet and an appraisal given to me by a trusted buckskin professional.  I had nearly that into her counting keeping the mare and feeding her special vitamins for that 11 months of pregnancy.  I couldn't sell her for half that.  And most of the people interested in her wanted her to re-sell.

I must share my belief that we have too many people breeding too many horses - there are horses being abandoned and left to starve in their pastures - there are horses being trailered to the woods and left there to "be free" that end up dying for want of food they do not know how to find.  Horse being given away - just Saturday a person I know has a very well blooded horse that was intended (and shown as) a dressage horse.  She didn't want to do dressage anymore and he was too much for trail riding with the kids - she'll give him away to someone who will give him a good home, train and show him.  The trainer I took my mare to yesterday told me that within the last 6 months he's had offers from people to take for free their horses at least a dozen times to find it a good home or because they'd raised the horse up and didn't have the knowledge and experience to start one.  FInally, on my 2.5 hours trip to and 2.5 hour trip from the trainers I saw at LEAST 3 baby foals pastured in enclosures that would likely cause injuries or death - they should not have been in the places they were in the care they had been given.  I can honestly not think of any good reason for a person to breed any old horse - only those breeding professionally for their own use at high-level competitions can I see it.  There are so many helpless horses out there needing little more than love, kindness and understanding - and these would take less knowledge and training to fix their little problems and less cost overall than the cost to breed, foal, raise for 3 years then start and train a baby to success.

I assume if you're asking these questions about this subject you are a little underexperienced - and I truly hope you are thinking of all these things - and I hope you will consider that I am not telling you you are bad or what you should or shouldn't do.

Julie Thorson, a high-profile contributor to a few magazines I follow has done some research.  She has found (and I've heard from others) that most horses abandoned or in need of rescue are ones that were originally intended for an inexperienced person who thought they could "grow their own" better than they could by - OR they were horses who'd been bred to sell as a weanling.  These are the ones who have the highest likelihood of meeting a bad end.  Those who had the horses, raised them with knowledge, even trained them or had them well trained at 3 had a MUCH better outcome than the rest - because once a horse is soundly started they are less likelly to have problems - it's the ones who had poor starts that become worse and end up in a bad way.

If at this point I haven't talked you into checking out your options - please get as prepared as you can - purchase too books:

Blessed are the Broodmares and Blessed are the Foals - buy them on amazon. com.  Read them from cover to cover - twice.  

While the foal is growing, purchase a DVD from Valley Vet about Imprint training - watch it once a month until the foal is born, then follow what it tells you to do.

Purchase or check out from the library all the books on colt handling you can - brining up baby by John Lyons is a good Western Horseman book.  Find all the literature and DVDs you can from clinicians like Chris Cox, Clinton Anderson, PonyBoy - any you can find meant to teach you the horse's way of life and commincation - then you'll begin to be well prepared for raising the foal as an associate mother rather than as human( predator).  If you haven't the help of a person to work with you, take the horse to reputable trainer to start it right.

I don't know you're experience with these things so I'm shooting from the inexperienced standpoint - but do yourself, your investment and your upcoming friend a favor by learning to be a horse to it.

Good luck