The mares have a high heat during the spring when there is a lot of sunlight. During the spring and summer, a mare will peak in heat about once every three weeks. If your herd or mare has been in contact with a stallion during its heat cycle, you may want to find out if your mare is pregnant or not. The gestation period, or the length of time a horse is pregnant, is 11 months, and its appearance on the abdomen will appear in the last 3 months of gestation. These guidelines provide instructions for checking for pregnancy in mares.
Step
Method 1 of 2: Using Non-Chemical Methods to Check for Pregnancy in Female Horses
Step 1. Check the mare's behavior around the stallion
A mare suspected of being pregnant may be brought in to meet a stallion fourteen days after contact with it. This encounter is necessary to observe whether his behavior indicates a possible pregnancy. If a mare is pregnant, she will refuse to be approached by a male and refuse to show her part. However, in general, a mare who is not in heat may also refuse to be approached by a stallion.
Step 2. Watch for signs of heat from your mare
Some mares will display certain behaviors such as lifting their tail, opening and closing the lips of the vulva, and crouching to squirt urine or mucus. In general, mares also become difficult to care for during their hot period. If the mare exhibits these behaviors 21 days after coming into contact with the male, it is highly likely that she is not pregnant.
Step 3. You can ask a veterinarian to perform a transrectal palpation
Veterinarians can perform transrectal palpation 16 to 19 days after the mare has come into contact with the stallion. This process is done by placing a hand on the horse's rectum to examine the uterus and look for indications of pregnancy. Examples of such indications are the size and/or shape of the uterus and swelling of the ovaries.
Step 4. Ask your vet to use an ultrasound to determine if your mare is pregnant
During an ultrasound, the vet inserts an instrument into the horse's rectum to take pictures that can confirm the pregnancy. From 16 days of age, pregnancy can be detected, and at 55 to 70 days, the sex of the fetus can be determined.
- Ultrasound uses sound waves to obtain an image of the uterus and can be used to monitor the fetal heart rate.
- Ultrasound is the recommended method for determining the pregnancy of a mare because of its reliability.
Method 2 of 2: Using Chemical Methods to Check for Pregnancy of a Female Horse
Step 1. Perform a blood test on the mare
Check the mare's hormones to determine her pregnancy. This is especially useful when the mare is too violent to be examined by non-chemical methods or when the rectum is too small for a physical examination.
- Ask the vet to take a blood sample. The vet will send a blood sample and test it in the laboratory
- Test for pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (PMSG) levels 40 to 100 days after your mare's contact with a stallion.
- If your mare was pregnant but lost her foetus, the PMSG test may give inaccurate results.
- Analyze the level of oestrone sulfate 100 days after mating. Estrogen sulfate levels will increase with the presence of the fetus, and return to normal if the fetus is aborted.
Step 2. Perform a urine test on the mare
Estrogen sulfate can be found in mare's urine. A urine test can be done by a veterinarian or with a home test kit.
- Get a home pregnancy test kit from a store or online seller.
- Do a urine test on your mare 110 to 300 days after contact with the stallion
- Cut a 1 gallon 3.8 liter or 2 liter water container with a knife. Use the bottom to collect the mare's urine.
- Follow the instructions on the pregnancy test kit to analyze the mare's urine. This process takes 10 minutes to get results.
Step 3. Confirm the results of the pregnancy test
Chemical tests can show a horse's pregnancy. However, it's a good idea to have other tests from your vet-chemically or non-chemically-to confirm the presence of the fetus. In addition, chemical tests are sometimes not carried out properly, so a positive result must still be confirmed by a veterinarian.
Tips
- Horse owners often choose to have their vet do an early pregnancy test to determine if their horse is carrying twins. Having twins can be dangerous for horses.
- The mare sometimes miscarries the fetus during the first 100 days of the gestation period. A home pregnancy kit is an economical method of taking a second pregnancy test after the first 100 days have passed.
