You have the perfect sweet mare and you know (or hope) that
she will be a perfect mama. She has good confirmation, is well behaved, learns
easily and quickly and is very willing to please. Or maybe she is just not ridaeble due an injury but not in pain and well enough to carry a foal to
term. How do you go about that? Well, the first thing you need to do is confirm all this
with your veterinarian. He is the expert and can confirm or rule out your hopes and
suspicions.
Once you know that your mare is a good candidate, you need to
go 'shopping' for a stud. That can be really easy if you know already exactly
which stallion you like, but if you don't know yet, you could start by picking
up some magazines with advertisements for stallion services. Of course, your
friends and local clubs and trainers as well as the registry for your particular
breed may be able to help you too and make some recommendations. It is important
to know beforehand what your goals are. Are you looking to breed a Reiner, a
Dressage horse, a jumper or a Barrel Racer. Again, you are starting with your
mare, what is her expertise?
Many breeders only breed within the breed, others like to try
the 'designer' breeds. An Arab/Saddlebred cross is a good example. Just like in
politics, there are many opinions.
Once you have zeroed in on a stud, it is time to prepare your
mare. There are certain tests you should do before you even take her to the stud
or consider ordering the semen. Mare can walk around for years with uterine
infections without ever knowing it. The chances of getting her pregnant when an
infection is present are slim, and if she gets pregnant there is a big chance of
aborting the foal. So, my opinion is to better be safe than sorry and cough up
the extra money to do the tests.
Jos Mottershead writes: "Most responsible stallion owners require a "clean
uterine culture" from a mare prior to breeding her live cover or possibly
shipping semen to her, and this has been the case for many years. It is well
known however, that the results of an endometrial swab culture alone are, at
best, not a reliable indicator of uterine pathogenicity, and at worst a false
positive may result in disastrous consequences.
A recent Internet poll carried out on the largest
non-professional equine reproduction e-mail list1
indicated that only about 50% of veterinarians routinely perform a cytology
smear in conjunction with an endometrial culture. This means that there are
still a large number of breeders who are operating under a mistaken belief that
their mare is either "clean" when they are not, or who are treating a uterine
infection that isn't really there!
What is the significance of the cytology smear?
A microscope slide smear of some of the fluid harvested from the endometrial
surface of the uterus is prepared and then stained using a hematology stain. The
slide is evaluated for the presence or absence of inflammatory cells,
specifically neutrophils.
The combination of endometrial cytology smear and culture
results offer the most accurate diagnostic tool connected with uterine swabbing
and pathogenicity (an endometrial biopsy is probably more accurate, but is not
necessarily cost-effective in all cases).
It has been suggested by some that if no neutrophils are
identified on a cytology smear, it is not necessary to perform a culture of the
sample, and the mare may be considered "clean". It has been indicated to me in
personal communication however, that if Pseudomonas aeruginosa is identified
with an absence of neutrophils, this may indicate the presence of the pathogen
in a commensal state, which will not develop into an active infection until
something triggers the occurrence. That something may be a suppression of the
mare's uterine immune system as a result of elevated progesterone levels
resulting from pregnancy. It is therefore suggested that a culture should still
be completed regardless of absence of neutrophils, although it should be noted
that there has not been peer-reviewed research that has proven this to date only
clinical evidence, and as this is the only organism that has been suggested to
behave in this manner, there is a great likelihood that the absence of
neutrophils alone will indicate a "clean" uterus in the vast majority of cases.
If neutrophils are present on the slide, but there is an
absence of pathogen growth on the culture, this indicates that there is
something irritating the uterus, and it is most likely that it is a pathogen
that was missed during sampling. Collection of a surface sample of the
endometrial lining of the uterus with the guarded endometrial swab is
undoubtedly the easiest method of sampling. Research3
has however suggested that in mares that are considered barren or subfertile, a
low volume (60-ml) uterine flush with phosphate buffered saline, introduced via
a trans-cervical balloon catheter, in order that the majority of the introduced
fluid may subsequently be recovered, yields a more accurate harvesting method to
indicate both cytological and bacterial results. A portion of the recovered
fluid is concentrated by centrifugation, and after removal of the supernatant
and resuspension of the resultant pellet in a lower volume of liquid; a culture
is prepared of the harvested matter. The centrifugation is performed to enable a
concentrated growth to become apparent, should an organism be present. A
cytology smear is prepared using a sample taken from the non-centrifuged portion
of the recovered fluid. Preparation using the centrifuged portion would reveal
distorted cells that could make interpretation of the results difficult. A
practical approach for using this more complicated sampling method rather than
the guarded swab, would be to use it only on those mares that have previously
proven themselves to be subfertile, or where a previous sample using a guarded
swab has resulted in an absence of a pathogen in culture, but the presence of
neutrophils in the cytology smear.
Worst case scenario:
In the worst case scenario, a mare with a clean uterus has an endometrial swab
performed, which is then subjected to a culture but not a cytology smear. The
result is returned as being "positive" for a pathogen, and intra-uterine
antibiotic therapy is initiated even though there is actually no pathogen
present in the uterus and the diagnosis is erroneous. When one introduces an
antibiotic into the uterus, one must consider the possibility of the creation of
a "superinfection" where an opportunistic organism - Pseudomonas aeruginosa and
yeasts are two such - becomes active. A similar situation is seen in human
females who are placed on an antibiotic and subsequently develop a vaginal yeast
infection. In the equine, the opportunistic organisms such as those named can be
extremely difficult to eradicate, and may lead to permanent damage to the
endometrium resulting in alteration of the endometrial biopsy score, and a
lowered chance of the mare subsequently producing a live foal.
Summary:
If a cytology smear is not prepared in conjunction with the culture of the swab
sample, then the results of the culture as far as showing pathogenic status of
the uterus are WORTHLESS!!!! It is essential that if a "positive culture"
result is given that there be neutrophils also seen on a cytology smear -
without those neutrophils present, it is most likely that the culture result is
indicative of a contaminated sample! So - no cytology, no accuracy!"
Okay, now that we have that out of the way, you can go ahead
and either send your mare to the stud or have the vet order the semen at the
right time. Timing is very important especially when you plan for AI. The
lifespan of the semen is only a couple of days and the older they get the less
volatile it is. Make sure the people sending the semen are reputable and send
only healthy semen in the correct solution. Each mare ovulates on a different
schedule. If your mare has been bred before, this schedule may be known,
otherwise your vet will have to make his best bet.
When I breed my mare, she goes to the stud even though she
still gets impregnated through Artificial Insemination (AI). The main reason I
send her is that when she is there she can be AI'd 2 or 3 times with the
freshest semen possible. The cost of shipping her outweighed the cost of having
semen shipped and AI by the vet more than once. Again, there are as many
opinions on the topic of AI or penetration/pasture breeding as there are horse
breeders, so I will not get into that.
Now it is time to wait...approximately 2 weeks until you can
finally have the ultrasound done to confirm that your mare is pregnant. I
remember being almost as excited about the good news as when I found out I was
pregnant myself! Now you have approximately 11 months to get ready for the BIG
day. It is very important that you have a Foaling Kit ready and handy well
before the due date.
Here is a list of what is essential in the Foaling Kit:
Terry Cloth (bath towel or half-size bath towels)
Stainless-steel bucket
Liquid soap such as Ivory, Dawn, or Joy
Roll of cotton
Baling twine or strong string
Scissors
Enemas (any enema safe for children is fine; a phosphate
enema is best)
Tincture of iodine or Nolvasan solution for dipping navel
Small plastic containers or 60cc plastic syringe cases
(for dipping foal's navel)
Umbilical clamp or rubber bands (in case foal's navel
bleeds more than usual)
Obstetrical sleeves or plastic rectal sleeves
Disposable tail wrap or gauze bandage (for wrapping tail)
Disposable latex gloves
Obstetric lubricant or KY jelly
Digital thermometer
Small blanket or old down vest (in case you have to keep
the foal warm on a cold night)
Flashlights and batteries (in case of power failure)
Cell phone or cordless phone
Phone numbers of vets, experienced foaling person (keep
list next to phone)
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