What your pregnant mare’s wellness exam includes:
Day 14 - 28

• General examination
• Ultrasound:
  Day 14 -checking for live embryo and twins.
  Day 28 - Check for heartbeat of foal to make sure your mare is carrying a live foal and check for twins again.

Day 90 - might give mare EHV-1 (rhino) to help prevent your mare from contracting equine herpes virus-1 which can cause spontaneous abortion. Some vets wait until day 150.
Day 150 - 

• General examination.
• Give EHV-1 (rhino) if didn’t already.

Day 210 -

• General examination
• Vaccinations - another EHV-1 (rhino).

Between Day 310 - 320 -

• General examination
• Prefoaling procedures - vet will open any Caslick’s sutures and give you a general consultation on foaling procedures.
• Vaccinations - vet will give your mare a full spectrum of vaccinations;tetanus, encephalitis, western equine, eastern equine and/or Venezulen equine variates, equine influenza,equine viral rhinopneumonitis and west Nile virus. Optional vaccinations are rabies and Potomac horse fever. These have to be given intramuscular versus intranasal to stimulate antibody response in the mare so antibodies can be transferred to the foal via the mare’s colostrum. The antibodies can not be transferred by the placenta only by the mare’s colostrum. This will give your foal up to twelve months of protection.
• Deworming - in addition to your normal deworming program , plan to deworm your mare with fenbendazole (brand name Pancur) as close to foaling as possible. This is a five day regimen of a double dose of fenbendazole that kills parasite larvae, so it’ll do a complete clean out. Try to plan this deworming program so that the the fifth day of deworming falls on the day of foaling.
  The dewormer kills stronglyloids westeri (roundworms) larvae, which can pass into the milk and be ingested by the foal. Roundworms can rob your foal of nutrition and cause diarrhea. The dewormer transfers to your mare’s milk sl her foal will also receive its benefits.

As you can see and read there is a lot of effort and work that goes into having a healthy foal at the same time keeping your mare safe.

Next week I will let you know what the postnatal exam for the mare includes.

If you have any questions or comments please leave them.

Talk to you soon,

HorseMom Mary

Hi Everyone,

I don’t know how many people of heard the term equine wellness.  the first time I came in contact with the term was reading the magazine Equine Wellness.  I liked the name and concept.

If you aren’t sure exactly what it means I’ll give  you the definition - Wellness is helping your horse maintain a healthy lifestyle and preventing problems before they start then waiting until there is a problem to seek veterinary care.

Wellness and preventive care programs are divided into seven life stages:  growing foal (first two years of life), pregnant mare (included conception till delivery 11 months), nursing mare (birth to weanling), senior horse (from late teens and up), performance horse (light work, moderate work, intense work and heavy work) and breeding stallion.  Other variables included are body weight and % of feed intake.

A good wellness program should be flexible and the care customized to your individual horse.

One of the aspects of a wellness plan is when the vet visits your horse it is called the “wellness exam”.  It is different for each life stage of the horse because each life stage has specific health and physical issues associated to it.  This means your horse gets better care.

We will be talking about the different wellness exams your vet should be giving your horse starting with the newborn foal wellness exam:

Physical examination -Check for:

• Ability to stand
• vigor - physical and mental strength
• Healthy heart, lungs and eyes.
• Pink gums, with capillary refill within one second.
• Body temperature - alert: Be certain it is precisely 101 degrees.
• Nursing ability
• Straight legs - evaluate flexor and extensor tendons.
• Body weight
• Body attitude and reflexes. 

Naval medication:

• Exaine for a healthy naval stump.
• No hernias
• Prevent infection from entering the open naval.

Ascertain ability to defecate:

• Color and consistency.
• Enema - check for retined meconium (pain).
• Ascertain ability to unrinate and location of urination.

Injections:

• First day only - 1500 IU tetanus antitoxin.
• 6 cc Penicillin/Strep IM.
• Repeat antibiotic for two additional days.

Laboratory tests:

• CBC and differential.
• Zinc sulfate turbidity test - immune status
• Compatibility test - isoerythrolysis (foal’s RBCs vs. mare’s colostrum).

This exam should be given to a newborn foal within the first twelve to eighteen hours.

Later I will talk about the pregnant mare wellness exam.

If you have any questions or comments please leave them.

Thanks,

HorseMom Mary

Hello everyone,

Welcome to our HorseMomsSupplements wellness blog!

As time goes by, you will see posts concerning nutrition, herbs, homeopathy, alternative therapies, health issues, toxic metals, chronic illnesses, conditioning and specific information concerning the different life stages of the horse. We want to be able to give you all the information possible to help your Whole Horse. We want to keep your horses well and help those that are not.

So please keep coming back to see what it is new and helpful. We want this to be a resource you keep coming back to help you help your horse.

We look forward to you visiting our blog and commenting when you have something to share.

It’s all about Horse Moms helping each other.

Talk to you soon,

HorseMom Mary