Mare in heat question....

[Lynn L.]

Help!!! My nearly four year old filly has always had strong heats. She always yells, makes a mess of herself and is a general pain. The vet examined her and said no cysts, everything looked normal, etc. So, I put her on chasteberry extract. She has been on it for about 8 months and she is much better. She only calls a little bit and she isn't squirting all over herself -- until this week. Last week she came into heat. But it seems to be getting worse. The last two nights she has woken me up screaming. This isn't her normal, "come get me" scream. It is so different and load that I actually have checked her because it sounds like she broke a bone or something. I think the neighbors are going to kill her because she gets especially loud at 6:00 a.m. when the sun is about to come up. Any suggestions (other than breeding her unless you want to lease her belly :D ) would really be appreciated.

Allie was raised right next to my former stallion. He has been gelded for two years. He pretty much ignores her and kicks the stall when she gets too loud.

Thanks again,

Lynn

[Carol Nelson]

I have a couple of fillies that I am sure have "premenstrual" cramps when they come into heat. They sag around and cramp up...sometimes I've treated them for colic symptoms only to find they were in heat. They always eat and poop normally through this.
They don't hollar though except for the stallion.
If there is no evidence of cysts, or infection or such, you might try red raspberry leaves. They are supposed to be for uterine problems. I tried them on a mare I couldn't get bred to tone up her uterus and vet said it looked a lot better after a month or two on them. (Still didn't get her bred though).
Or you might try putting her on Regumate for awhile. Ask your vet about that.
If it persists, you might have to have her ultrasounded to see if anything shows up on the u.s.
Good luck, must be disconcerting just to know she's in pain and you can't do anything about it. Might give her an ounce or two of B-L Solution for the cramping. B-L is a bute-less substitute made from Yucca and Devil's Claw and it works pretty good for pain. I don't use Bute except for the very extreme pain situations.

[Abejita]

Has your vet mentioned possibly doing a hormone assay on her?

[Lynn L.]

They did a whole work up on her and everything was normal. When the ultrasound was good, they figured the hormones would be fine. The bloodwork all came back normal.

Where do you get dried rasberry?

[Abejita]

the reason I asked was I knew one young filly/mare who was like that and it turned out she was a hermaphrodite..extra large clitoris..and if I remember correct (VERY long ago and I was 'just a worker' at the barn.) had one ovary and the other was more like a testicle..

[Carol Nelson]

Lynn...I'll do some looking and try to find a good site to get the raspberry leaves. They're supposed to "fluff up" the uterus lining...might help!

[AliceG]

My mare is quiet and sweet except in a crowd. She can go from not in heat to full blown raging screaming heat at large trail rides. Not fun, especially when you are camping in close proximity to other poor souls who are trying to sleep.

I have discussed with my vet the use of a 'marble' inserted into her uterus to simulate a pregnancy - it calms the mare, keeps them from coming in heat. Sometimes the marble is spontaneously expelled, sometimes it is removed by the vet after about 90 days. It is cheaper than regumate. I'm going to try it this year.

[Lynn L.]

Please let me know how this works. My vets weren't really familiar with the marble idea. (Pretty strange since they do a lot of high-tech stuff. I guess it is too low-tech.) I have heard good and bad about the marble. Other than breeding her, I am kind of running out of ideas. I can't afford to put her on regumate. But I understand there is an herbal called "regulate". I just haven't been able to find it. Good luck!

[Terry Wallace]

I've got one just like that Lynn... my coming 4 year old Panorama II daughter. She is VERY vocal...and a real "screamer"... what I do to quiet her down is to remove all male company, and not give her so much as over-the-fence male company. I put her with older mares, and they get sick of her acting like that (being so loud) so they "correct" her by chasing her a bit, and making threatening looks her way.

[Carol Nelson]

Lynn, I wasn't able to find a site that carried just the plain red raspberry leaves...but one site said they should be available at your local health food store or bulk food store. We just used the dried leaves...very simple to use, and they don't object to them.
If you can't find them, let me know and I'll find out where my vet gets them.