mare in heat

bit · mare in heat

Posting for a friend'

My mare Tawny is suffering from severe hormonal problems now during springtime. She is 6 years old in May, and has always had a tough heat cycle as far as I'm aware. Winter time has been fine, but now for several weeks she's acted differently. She has been in heat for a lot more than a week, and I think before she got in heat she had severe pms. Her behavior has been bizarre (for example, all of a sudden, she doesn't want her halter put on, even though she normally likes her halter, and this happened last year too during this time but then I thought it had to do with something else). When she is in heat it is obvious because she pushes, leans, and bangs her butt against the corral bars, and she looks miserable. I just feel so sorry for her and I don't know if anybody else has any mares with hormonal problems like this and have any suggestions.

PasoBaby_CarolU

She may have cysts on her ovaries, which are very uncomfortable. Chasteberry juice is supposed to help mares with hard heats. Try some Evitex for a month and see if it helps her. If not, she may need to go BETWEEN HEAT CYCLES and be ultrasounded to see if she has ovarian cysts. If she does, they can be removed with arthroscopic surgery. If they are bad and the mare isn't going to be bred, you might consider removing the ovaries all together.

misstux

Carol, it sounds like you know a lot about the subject. There is a pony mare where Scout lives who has been in heat since she came - several months now. She is a real witch toward other horses. The owner is not willing to spend much money on having her evaluated. What can we try that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

havingfun

I feed my mare free choice minerals from Advanced Biological Concepts. She devoured the Rush Creek Mineral and BVC when started on it 8 years ago. She chooses to eat more during the spring when the heat cycles are bad than the rest of the year. I am assuming those 2 mineral mixes have what our local soil lack.

I'm sure there are other companies that sell similar products. The theory is give the horse what they are missing and they will balance out their hormones themselves. When the vet palpated her the ovaries were enlarged. We didn't ultrasound but he suggested I take her 400 miles away and get her spayed based on the pain she was in. I tried the minerals first and it worked. So relieved she didn't need surgery.

Good luck.