Ultrasound said not in foal but..... ????

[rideagoldenpony]

Is it possible??

I've got a maiden mare that we ultrasounded not in foal back at the end of August/beginning of September. She was bred at the end of July, so wouldn't even be due until the end of June.

So the ultrasound said she was not in foal, but darn if she isn't getting a little belly on her! She's my hardest keeper, and granted maybe she's finally gaining some age and weight with the spring grass, but she just has that kind of "poochy look" to her belly right in front of her flanks....

Is it possible? Am I just grasping at straws?

[camohn]

Well always worth a recheck (coming from the person who has TWO not preggo mares that are now due in a month and a half!).. FWIW both my mares are old and have a tilted uterus....vet thinks both were hiding "back there"!

[erinwillow]

I can't say for sure with your mare. . . but. . . . :D our mare Maggie was US'd "not in-foal" early last fall. As our primary goal was to breed her, we considered offering her for sale as a children's riding pony. We had severl interested parties and then something, something told me to double check--I swear it's that intuition thing--we called the Vet out in December and he palpped her IN FOAL!!! Long story short, she delivered a gorgeous colt on Feb. 8th, :winkgrin: So, by all means, if you have an "inkling" get her checked again. . . it is *so* worth it!

[VirginiaBred]

Sometimes they can hide in one of the horns.........how well do you trust this Vet? I'd definitely do a re-do..................hell Florida is doing a re-do on their primary............

[Peace of Cake]

Over the 4th of July weekend last year I had to have a vet out to do an u/s on an outside mare, they were hoping that she would be in foal and they would catch a ride home for her then. So needless to say they send out a different vet, not my normal repro vet to do an u/s. He can't screw that up right? Well does the u/s, he says not if foal. I said well then what is that little round black spot, he says a tumor. He said the mare will be coming back into heat within a week or so, so tease her. Mare never came back into heat. Call the vet out again for a recheck in a few weeks, with the normal vet. The mares tumor now has a heartbeat:D

[rideagoldenpony]

Sometimes they can hide in one of the horns.........how well do you trust this Vet? I'd definitely do a re-do..................hell Florida is doing a re-do on their primary............

I love my vet, I really do..... but there seem to be a lot of questions this year about whether/whether or not mares are in foal. So I'm not feeling all warm and fuzzy like "oh yeah, WHATEVER SHE SAYS" at this point!

The FL comment made me laugh.

[Daventry]

We had two Mare Owners who bred to Picasso last year, both on completely opposite ends of the US, who had their vet ultrasound their mares and deemed them to be not in foal. In both cases, they were given a shot to bring them back into heat to be rebreed again, and, unfortunately, both mares ended up aborting from the shot....meaning, they had actually been pregant to begin with! :no: Neither one was using a repro vet, just a regular vet, and both mares never did come back in season again last year so will be rebreeding again this year. It's such a shame when that happens. Although rare, it is possible to make a mistake on pregnancies. The same thing happened to a friends mare a few years back (decided not to rebreed and were using her for riding) and they didn't realize she was going to foal until one week beforehand!

[crosscreeksh]

Many years ago we had two BIG QH mares checked for pregnancy. Both were said to be unbred and were given Lutalase. No heat resulted. But dang...we had two gorgeous foals the next spring. Another time, a mare was declared not pregnant. I had the same "feeling" as the OP. Months later I had a different vet check the mare and she told me that, "she may not be pregnant, but something is sucking on my finger!!" Go with your gut feeling and/or recheck!!!

[eyesontheground]

Crosscreek...is it possible the two mares did come back in to heat and then maybe had a night time visitor and ended up preggers anyway? I am very surprised that the lutalyse did not cause them to abort...if it did not you got VERY lucky!

I would have her rechecked...def possible the vet missed something the first time around. US is harder to do than most vets make it look. Things def move around in there and shades of black and gray can be hard to read early on.

We ended up with a mare at our barn who started looking suspiciously pregnant. Even fooled us by bagging up! Darn mares! Vet came out and laughed at us but it was def better knowing she wasn't pregnant. Everyone that came out was like whoa! is she pregnant? No...just carrying her weight oddly. She was on a diet the entire time and never did lose the pregnant look. We finally figured she had just had a bunch of babies in her past.

[shawneeAcres]

Three years ago I bred a mare for someone. They returned the mare, having had her ultrasounded and she was not in foal (according to their vet). They returned her to my farm and we kept waiting for her to come in. She did not do so, and soemthing about ehr demeanor said "bred" to me! So had my vet out and she palpated her and yep, she was in foal. She said something about how the embryo was positioned and the way the mare's uterus was (it was a ratehr older mare who had had many foals) would likely have made it hard to detect on ultrasound at that stage of pregnancy. So yes, it can and does happen!

[rideagoldenpony]

Thanks everyone!

My vet is on vacation right now, so I'll be scheduling an appointment once she gets back. Inquiring minds NEED to know!! :D

[clint]

Not to be negative here, but twice I have thought, awww my vet was wrong, this mare is looking plump, haven't seen a heat, and she has that dreamy look.;) Unfortunately, he has never been wrong, and the mare was not in foal. So, I will think positive for you, but, sometimes the vets are right. :(

[rideagoldenpony]

Not to be negative here, but twice I have thought, awww my vet was wrong, this mare is looking plump, haven't seen a heat, and she has that dreamy look.;) Unfortunately, he has never been wrong, and the mare was not in foal. So, I will think positive for you, but, sometimes the vets are right. :(

Unfortunately..... I know that is most likely the case. But it is fun to entertain the thought for a little while, anyway!!

I have another mare that is hotly debated in my household at the moment. My husband and mother think she's pregnant, I think she's just a fat old broodmare. She was checked in foal several times.... can't remember how far along she would have been the last time, but I'm thinking 3? months. I know they can of course lose a pregnancy unbeknownst to owners, but I am barely, ever so slightly hopeful that she could possibly still be pregnant. We'll see. That one would be due 3/29..... I'm SO SO SO impatient for the babies to start arriving -- it is HARD to wait!!!

[crosscreeksh]

Eyesontheground...we had bought the mares out of state and they had been "exposed" to a TB stallion. There was no way any of our stallions got to them, we have very secure facilities...and the foaling dates matched their previous exposure. I've been told that after a certain time period in a pregnancy that Lutalase doesn't "work". Any yes, I think we were lucky to get two nice foals!!!