Category Archives: mare

Blue Light

Posted: | October 22, 2023

Does Maternal Exposure to Blue Light Affect Foal Development at Maturity? Because humans like to try and defy nature – January 1st being the “birthday” in the northern hemisphere, and only marginally better August 1st in the southern – we are often attempting to force earlier onset of cyclicity in the seasonally anestrus mare using lighting programs. Several… Read More »

Estimate Fetal Age

Posted: | October 15, 2023

A New Method to Estimate Fetal Age in the Mare Sometimes there arises a need to estimate fetal age in the mare, for which a breeding date perhaps is unknown. Several methods have been previously identified, such as measurement of the fetal eye[1][2], or biparietal diameter, eye approximated volume, fetal aortic diameter and femur length[3], among others. These… Read More »

Altrenogest Effect on Progesterone

Posted: | October 7, 2023

Is it True Altrenogest Has an Effect on Progesterone Production? Pregnant and embryo recipient mares are often treated with supplemental progestins – commonly Altrenogest in the oral form Regumate, or injectable in one of several longer-acting commercial preparations – in an expectation of “low progesterone” levels. There is a significant question as to what number should be applied… Read More »

Monitoring for EVA

Posted: | September 23, 2023

Does Routine Monitoring for EVA Make a Difference? With the announcement this week of an outbreak of equine viral arteritis in PEI in Canada, a very reasonable question to ask is “does routine monitoring for EVA make a difference?” At the recent ISER meeting in Brazil, Kaps et al. reviewed the effects of monitoring and management practices on… Read More »

EVA Outbreak in Canada

Posted: | September 22, 2023

Canadian Equine Viral Arteritis! There has been an EVA outbreak in Canada reported in Prince Edward Island. Equine Viral Arteritis is predominantly a respiratory disease, which has reproductive implications. Symptoms vary dramatically from none (“asymptomatic”) to a wide variety which may present as any combination of the following: elevated temperature, depression, loss of appetite. Affected animals may also… Read More »

Can Embryo Transfer Success Rates be Improved?

Posted: | September 16, 2023

Can Embryo Transfer Success Rates be Improved? Embryo transfer success rates are recognized as having a variable outcome dependent upon technician technique as well as mare suitability. While the flush process is usually fairly stable in results and less subject to variability, the subsequent transfer often does not maintain that same stability of success between all practitioner groups.… Read More »

Oxytocin Use to Support Pregnancy?

Posted: | September 9, 2023

Oxytocin Use to Support Pregnancy Instead of Regumate (Altrenogest)? It seems initially counter-intuitive to consider oxytocin use to support pregnancy instead of Regumate or other altrenogest treatments which are commonly used to potentially increase – or at least maintain – progestin levels during early pregnancy in the mare. Oxytocin causes uterine contractions and will expel the pregnancy, right?… Read More »

Endometrial Biopsy in the Mare

Posted: | September 2, 2023

Endometrial Biopsy in the Mare – is one sample enough? An endometrial biopsy in the mare is a useful diagnostic to determine cellular health of the uterine lining which will be directly responsible for pregnancy maintenance once placentation has occurred. The biopsy score is correlated to the likelihood of live foal production by use of different scales, such… Read More »

Older Subfertile Mares

Posted: | August 19, 2023

Improve Pregnancy Rates in Older Subfertile Mares! How can one improve pregnancy rates in older subfertile mares? This category of mare is notorious for having lower pregnancy rates, and this becomes even more annoying when one is performing a higher-cost procedure such as embryo transfer. A perennial question therefore is “can we improve pregnancy rates in those older… Read More »

The Uterine Cytology Slide

Posted: | August 10, 2023

Preparing the Uterine Cytology Slide – Pre-breeding diagnostics should include the simple, rapid and easy-to-perform uterine cytology slide, which takes only about 15 minutes By Jos Mottershead & Kathy St. Martin A very useful, rapid and easy first step diagnostic prior to breeding a mare is to prepare and read a uterine cytology slide. Minimal equipment is required,… Read More »