My mare developed ventral edema at about day 220. She is prone to infections from mud, and there was a good deal of it where she was standing. She had infection in her left hing leg, the left side of her udder was swollen and very hard. She had some ventral edema as well. I think the ventral edema was caused by her not wanting to move around due to the scratches. I moved her to a dry paddock. The skin infection resolved, the belly edema resolved, but not the hardness of udder. At about day 290 I called my vet, who said put her on sulfa drugs for ten days. I did, and it did not resolve the hardness of the udder I hauled her in at the end of the 10 day course of treatment to the vet, and asked what to do. By then there was some blood around the clitoris and the vet was far more concerned about that. He said the hard udder was the mare bagging up. I doubted that, since one side was hard and swollen and the other had nothing in it. He did exam, said foal was BIG and the placenta felt fine. He was worried about the bloody discharge around the clitoris (none in the vagina) and said put her on regumate, 15 ccs (1350 lb big Dutch mare)a day. We did hormone assay and she is at 4.1, which is low but acceptable. But he wants her on the regumate and I am afraid to buck doctor's orders(she is a 15 year old mare with spotty breeding history, but not much good repro care in the past). Now she is at day 320 and the right side of udder looks great, milk is coming in nicely. The left side of udder is still hard, no milk. Still has bloody discharge. I am inclined to put her back on the sulfa drugs until she foals. This mare does tend to be a walking infection site. Gets scratches and infections much easier than other horses here. I do trust my vet. He is not a "repro specialist" but does breed his own racehorses and does a fair amount locally in the area of ultrasounding, AI and other breeding matters. I am about 120 miles from Lexington KY so I could haul the mare to a specialist there, but I am afraid to do so this late in the game. AND I am doubtful I can make the trip to Lexington before the 1st of June, which is then WAY late to stress this mare. Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated}
Yes I'd definitely do the antibiotics course if I was you - inject for a week and powder for a week with regular antibiotics would probably be better for her than the sulfas due to pregnancy (but I'm not a vet so disclaimer on that one..)
I would also put her on a course of immune-boosting supplements... echinacea powder for a few weeks. She probably needs some other vits/minerals to improve her health in general if she has regular infection issues.
Thanks for the ideas on immunity boosters. I had thought about that as regular maintenance for her since I noticed so many problems recently. I wonder if there is anything stronger than just supplements. Is Echinacea safe for pregnant mares?
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