DAN: "I have a 2 and 1/2 year old from the BLM,
and she has been progressively getting round in the belly,
but she doesn't really seem fat, if that makes sense.
I have suspicions that she may be pregnant.
Are there any signs that I could be looking for it, or anything
I should do aside from just getting the vet out and doing
a test?
Ultimately, that is what I will do.
If she is pregnant, how does the pregnancy affect a young horse?
Is the process harder on them?"
So I mean, I think we all can experience getting
a little rounder these days.
[LAUGHTER]
But I'm curious to see what your thoughts are there.
DR LYDIA GRAY: All right.
Well, let's see if we can help her out.
So I'm going to answer the last question first.
DAN: Yes.
DR LYDIA GRAY: And that was, is it harder on a young horse?
DAN: Correct.
DR LYDIA GRAY: And so my information
comes from Dr Deb McDonnell, who is a behaviorist at the New
Bolton Center at Penn.
And she actually manages a herd of feral ponies.
DAN: Wow.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
So what she said is, and I'm quoting,
"Under natural herd conditions, fillies
start cycling, are bred, and become
pregnant in their yearling spring."
DAN: So 2 and 1/2 is, in theory, not outside the realm
of possibility.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Right.
So often before their first birthday.
Some lose their pregnancies, but most go on
to foal at about the age of 2.
DAN: Wow.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Their first foal-- so here's
what happens when you're reproductively
efficient that young.
Their first foal might be small, reflecting
the dam's not yet fully grown, and the filly herself might not
grow as big.
DAN: Oh.
DR LYDIA GRAY: And also, the milk of the two-year-old filly
can be slower to come in, and maternal behavior
is variable and often delayed when they're that young.
So that's what can happen when a young horse gets
bred a little bit too early.
DAN: So it might give birth to a smaller foal.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Mm-hmm.
DAN: Also, it might not grow to be larger as well,
and milk production might be impacted, as well?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Correct.
Yep.
So then her other question, her main questions were,
how do you tell if the filly is pregnant?
DAN: Mm-hmm.
DR LYDIA GRAY: So one way is you can--
in the last three months or so of gestation,
you can look at them and go, well,
it looks like she's carrying a foal.
Now, that's not a very reliable method,
because we're going to show a horse very near and dear
to my heart, that looks like he's about to have
a baby this spring.
Newman.
So looking at horses is not a very good predictor.
Then you think--
DAN: Poor Newman!
You always give him such a hard time!
[LAUGHTER]
DR LYDIA GRAY: And then you think, well,
maybe the heat cycles?
But unfortunately, there are mares
who are pregnant that still appear
to be going through heat.
And there are mares who are not pregnant,
what we call open, that have silent heats, don't show heat.
So that's not reliable either.
And then, I always go online and Google these questions
when I see them, and there's actually quite a few myths
and lot of misinformation out there
about how to tell if your horse is pregnant.
I'm not even going to repeat those, because some of them
were just like, what?
DAN: Old wives' tales?
[LAUGHS]
DR LYDIA GRAY: Something.
She's right on track.
Bringing the vet out is the best bet.
One, to see if her filly is pregnant.
Two, to provide advice for the pregnant mare
and soon-to-be foal.
And then, three, it sounds to me--
and maybe I'm reading more into this than there is--
but if she's just got this filly and has not
had the vet out yet, just do an all-around physical exam
and provide some wellness services,
you've got to do that.
DAN: That's a great point.
That's a great point, especially coming from the BLM,
there's a lot of things probably to look into there.
You've got diet change for sure and all that type of stuff
to look over.
Absolutely.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
So when the vet comes to look at a mare
to see if she's pregnant, there's a couple things to do.
And I'm going to go through all of them,
but it sounds like this filly might be far along.
And so, many of them are--
what is that saying?
The barn door's closed, or something?
DAN: Yeah.
[LAUGHS]
DR LYDIA GRAY: Too late for this filly.
When I was in practice, I did a lot of rectal ultrasounds
at about 15 days to see if mares were pregnant.
DAN: Wow.
DR LYDIA GRAY: That's how early you can tell.
But I think we're way past that.
DAN: We're a little past it.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
So at about 30 days, you can actually
pick up the fetal heartbeat.
DAN: At 30 days?
DR LYDIA GRAY: In 30 days.
And then at about between 60 or 120 days
is where you-- well, at 60 days, at 120 days,
you can also do the fetal sexing now
to tell if it's going to be a boy or a girl--
filly or a colt. But I think all those things are
done for this person.
I think she is much farther along than that.
DAN: It seems like we're a little further along
in the process.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So the vet ultrasound-- your vet could always
do a plain old rectal.
Just stick the arm in, and thump, thump, thump, the baby
on the head.
And sometimes they kick back, and you're like, OK!
Yeah, she's pregnant.
Those are always exciting.
That might be tricky with a mare,
if she's not been touched much, if she's a BLM Mustang mare.
DAN: Yeah.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Well, then you have the options of bloodwork.
And there are a couple tests that your vet
can draw blood for and run.
One of them is--
it's now called eCG for equine chorionic gonadotropin.
But it used to be called--
DAN: Just a simple phrase.
DR LYDIA GRAY: It's a simple phrase.
It used to be called PMSG for pregnant mare serum
gonadotropin.
I don't know why they changed names
just when we learn them, right?
The other one is just plain old estrogen-- estrone sulfate--
but they each have very specific windows
of when they're accurate and reliable and when they're not.
DAN: Oh.
DR LYDIA GRAY: So again, without knowing the breeding date,
it can be tricky even with these.
But they're available.
And the estrogen is available after about day 80
or so, and then on up to about two weeks until the due date.
So that might be the best test for her,
but it's something that she needs to have her vet out, have
the conversation, decide what's the best way to go,
and then fulfill all the other mare's needs at that time.
DAN: That's a great point.
I forgot about the handling of a wild mustang at this point,
to try to do a rectal, and all those different types of--
all the challenges that come into that as well.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Even drawing blood might be tricky.
DAN: Yeah.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
DAN: So good luck to you.
[LAUGHTER]
But maybe you get-- you get a little baby out of it,
and you get a two-for-one sale, which is great.
[LAUGHS]