I purchased a 2 year old filly on 5th July last year, she is a cross-breed, and I would say that the biggest "cross" is TB or similar. She is quite narrow, and needs to fill out, as 2 year olds do.
I also purchased, from the same dealer, the July before (2001), another 5 year old coloured mare, who delivered me a surprise filly in May this year.
Because of the "surprise package" from the first mare, I asked the Vet to take a blood test from the new mare, when she came to innoculate the filly and the foal on 17th September (just to check the new filly was not in foal as well).
At this time, the filly would have been 74 days at the very least, because she would have had to be in foal before she came to me - no access to stallion here!
Vet bill said chorionic gonad and oestrone both, for the lab test, and it came back negative. Thank goodness, I thought, no worries there then.
The filly suffered a serve bout of colic on 5th November, and the vet came out again to treat her. Whilst there, she also palpated for a foal, just to be sure. The filly would have been at least 123 days at that time, and the vet said she could not feel a foal - so I was again reassured.
It is now the end of March, and the filly has come through the winter extremely well (I am in the UK). I do not have much in the way of grazing through the winter - it is very muddy here, but the horses are turned out all day, and they have 2 feeds and a hay net (haylage) per day. They are not over-fed, because I do have good grazing as soon as it begins to grow, and they tend to explode if I feed them too well over the winter. But they are not "hungry" - just normal horses looking for their breakfast and dinner.
Anyway, this filly looks exceptionally well for the end of the winter, and I have noticed extreme movements in the area just in front of the stifle and above, but I have not noticed any movement under the belly close to the udders. She is concave in front of her hips. Her udders, which were little typical baby udders, all tucked up between her back legs, are now hanging on the end of a quite large empty sac, and there are two lines of quite pronounced swelling in front of the udders, which quite obviously lead into the sac. There is no evidence of milk, but some white spots on the teats of her udders. I have not been able to actually feel her udders yet - I am persuading her to let me get close. She is very kind, but at the moment when I try to touch them she cow-kicks at me (she never, ever kicks at any other time - she is a real "people lover") She has also recenty become very "anti" belly brushing. She will let me feel all around her belly, except for under the stifle and towards the udders (which is where I want to feel for foal movmement).
I can see a lot of movement, but cannot actually feel anything.
She will be 3 in July, and if she was in foal when I got her, she would be about 267 days now.
The other mare who produced a surprise baby is a large heavy cob mare, and it was her 2nd foal (as far as I know - maybe 3rd.) She was so large and I had no trouble seeing and feeling the baby moving, but I can't quite remember how far along she was before I actually felt strong fetal movement. But this filly is a very young maiden, and is very much more slight in build.
Sorry about the long background, but my questions, if anyone can help are:
Is it possible that the blood test could have given a false negative at 74 days?
Is it possible that the vet could not feel the foal at 123 days?
Could the movement I am seeing be just stomach movements and not baby movements?
If she is in foal, and is not 3 until July, will she be able to manage alright? I will stay with her as I did with my other mare (I slept in my car for weeks waiting for it - I do not live at the same place as the horses do!) but apart from the obvious maiden mare "God what is happening to me?" situation, do I need to watch for anything else? - she is so young
She does not look huge at all, but she does look much bigger round the belly. She was broken in very early (as a 2 year old, just before I bought her), but I do not work her much at all because I don't want to damage her - she only has very gentle excercise very occassionally, just so she doesn't forget what she knows - she has been backed and taught exceptionally well, and is totally trustworthy and bombproof. So she is not particularly fit and well muscled so as to "hide" a 267 day fetus.
Lastly, when should I be able to feel or see evidently strong foal movements?
I would be so grateful for any help.
Many thanks indeed.
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