Hello Everyone,
Below is the pregnant mare’s wellness plan. It is a guideline for you to follow to keep your pregnant mare and unborn foal healthy. It is a detailed time table of important exams, vaccinations and when to deworming is safe.
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.
I will posting what the postnatal exam for the mare includes soon.
If you have any questions or comments please leave them.
Talk to you soon,
Horse Mom Mary
