Frequently Asked Questions

Joint Injections
What are they? Why are the done? What do they Cost?

Injections of certain medications into joints are used to treat lameness, prevent lameness, and improve performance. The joints of any animal, including people, are one of the most vulnerable sources of lameness. Many times it is a joint problem that brings an end to an athlete’s career.

Joint surfaces are made of cartilage. Depending on the athlete’s job, a tremendous amount of pressure can be put on the delicate joint cartilage. This pressure leads the cartilage from having a glistening, white, smooth, healthy surface to having a surface that is dry with areas of degeneration and a color that is more towards yellow with no glisten to it. These athletes can be basketball players, jumping horses, barrel horses, fox hunters (equine and canine), western pleasure horses, and any other animal that has joints.

Joint injections are used commonly in the equine world to treat and prevent joint disease. A horse that is lame due to degenerative joint disease can benefit from injections of hyaluronate (HA) because HA helps to lubricate the joint. HA is a naturally occurring substance and it is in most of the parts of your body that are lubricated in some way. It is harvested from such sources as rooster comb, umbilical chord, etc. and put into a form that can be injected into a joint. Veterinarians have been injecting HA into joints since the early 1980’s and human medicine has recently started using HA as their “new” way to treat joint disease in people. HA helps relieve pain in a joint because a well lubricated joint will have surfaces that GLIDE over each other whereas dry joint surfaces GRIND over each other.

Lameness can also come from a joint that shows no radiographic signs of joint disease but the joint is “dry” because of a traumatic incident to the joint. The traumatic incident can be something as simple as twisting the joint in a misstep. It can also be as traumatic as a joint with a laceration that has healed well. Sometimes if the synovial capsule is damaged as in a laceration, it will not produce hyaluronate as it normally does. So even though the joint looks good on the outside, the inside joint capsule and the joint cartilage are dry and they are grinding on each other and this causes pain. This situation can be easily remedied with an injection of HA. Many times once the level of HA is up to the proper level, the joint capsule will kick in with its own HA producing ability.

Some joints are injected with HA even when the horse or athlete is not lame and shows no radiographic signs of degenerative joint disease (DJD). These horses are just not performing at 100% of their ability. The trainer or rider may have complaints that the horse is “ a little stiff”. He may be a cutting horse that just doesn’t get down after his cow as well as he used to or he could be a barrel horse that doesn’t want to turn his barrel as tight as he once could. He could be a dressage horse or a top flight western pleasure horse that is not performing at the level that he can if everything is “just right”. These horses may be performing at 95% and at lower level competitions 95% will usually get the job done. At the upper levels a 5% decrease in performance can be the difference between being champion or not in the ribbons. Athletes like these are getting the increased performance benefit of extra lubrication in their joints and they are also getting the cartilage protection benefit of the added lubrication. It is usually the best horses who try the hardest that fall into this category.

What do joint injections cost? The cost of joint injections vary depending on what joint is being injected and exactly what is going into the joint. An example is the hock joint. There are three commonly injected joints in the hock. Sometimes only one of the joints will be injected and sometimes all three will be injected. There are also many different brands and qualities of HA and they all have different costs. Each situation is different depending on the needs of the athlete and should always be approached in that manner. There are many aspects to consider when comparing one joint injection to another. The most important ingredient in a joint injection is a veterinarian who is knowledgeable in lameness and joint anatomy. The veterinarian should also be up to date on all the medications that can be injected in a joint depending on the needs of the horse. The welfare of the horse and its individual needs are always uppermost in the mind of a good equine veterinarian.

What is Computer Assisted Hoof Balancing?

Everyone knows that everything from your tires to your life works better when all components are “in balance”. We already know the importance of keeping your horse’s teeth and mouth in balance with precision teeth floating. We know from experience and scientific knowledge that humans and animals perform better and closer to maximum potential when all parts of their being are in balance.
Veterinary medicine has a new tool that was designed to help farriers and veterinarians work together to give your horse a better balanced foot. It is called “Computer Assisted Hoof Balancing ”or CAHB. Whether your goal is to have your horse’s joints stay healthy as long as possible or it is to balance a horse’s feet with visible problems, CAHB can help your horse. To achieve maximum benefit, it requires the blended skills of your farrier and equine veterinarian.
A horse’s legs are comparable to the tires on your car. If the tires are out of balance, one side will wear out before the other and instead of getting 40,000 miles out of your tires you will get 30,000. With CAHB we take x-rays and digital pictures of the foot, pastern, and fetlock. We put the x-rays and photographs into a computer program that allows us to visualize what you cannot always detect with the naked eye. This CAHB program measures precisely the angles between the coffin, pastern, and fetlock joints. These measurements check for front to rear or anterior/posterior balance. If any of these joints are out of balance with the other, the degree of change that needs to be made is measured. Side to side or medial/lateral balance is also visualized and precisely measured. If there is a medial/lateral imbalance your horse’s joints just like a car’s tires will wear out faster.
CAHB will help decrease the amount of joint injection treatments that a horse needs because with his joints in balance they no longer become inflamed. The inflammation in a joint is many times secondary to a joint wearing unevenly. There have been horses that were constantly having their coffin joints injected with medications to keep them sound. The veterinarian looked good because he/she could always make the horse sound but six months later the lameness would show up again. With CAHB some of these horses never have to be injected again or they can, at a minimum, go for longer intervals between injections.
Team AVS has performed CAHB on horses for many reasons with good results. There are progressive knowledgeable horse trainers who are looking out for their horses’ career longevity who have had CAHB performed on their horses as “preventive medicine”. This kind of mentality gets 50,000 miles out of the 40,000 mile warranty joint. Other horse owners have horses with chronic problems. CAHB has improved all of these horses and to quote one CAHB horse owner “It has given me a new horse after years of chronic problems”.
CAHB provides farriers and veterinarians a tool to treat and prevent problems that cannot be seen with naked eye. The precise measurements of the computer program allow the visualization of narrowed joint spaces that are difficult to pick up with plain x-rays. Sometimes the difference between the joint space on one side of a joint and the other is very minimal but it makes a difference. Veterinarians and farriers can benefit from each others knowledge as a team. CAHB helps them help your horse have that extra edge that is often the difference between winning and 2nd place or getting 50,000 miles vs. 30,000 out of your horse.

Form & Function: What effect do they have on each other?

Just a few weeks ago I was eating breakfast with an illustrious group of farriers. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive I was telling Richard Pastuck about a horse that I had performed a purchase exam on. I told him that the owner wanted to know if he could correct a certain conformation fault. I told Richard the horse was four years old. He said it was five years to late.
Richard made a good point with the answer. The best time to correct a horse’s conformation is before conception when the sire and dam are being chosen. Conformation traits both good and bad tend to pass on to future generations. The problem is that most of us don’t get to choose our horse’s parents and even if we did - we need to know what to look for.
Advising a future owner on a horse’s conformation is just part of what a purchase exam is all about, but it is a very important part. The first thing to remember is that all top athletes need to have good conformation and be structurally correct but there are differences when comparing different disciplines. The next important point to remember is that there will always be horses that perform at the very best of their breed or discipline that have less than ideal conformation. So when we see that horse that is toed out, bench kneed, low heeled, with a straight stifle that just qualified to the reining championships in Gladstone, or won the Hampton Classic in jumping, the Triple Crown in racing, etc. do we forget about aiming for the ideal conformation when choosing a horse? The answer is no. We use it as part of the big picture of the whole horse and our intended use for him. We use it as information when formulating our final decision.
Balance is also an aspect to consider when looking at conformation. Your potential horse may have nice straight legs, good sloping shoulders and fetlocks but he may be heavily muscled on the forehand and have little muscling in the rear quarters or no “engine” for energy.
When looking at a horse’s rear legs consider that the hindquarter muscles are the horse’s “engine” generating energy as the fibers contract and release. That energy is transformed through the hips, stifles, hocks, and fetlocks. The angles of these joints allow them to close and open to provide propulsion. The forelegs support about 60% to 65% of a horse’s weight. This is why a horse is naturally on the forehand. They also have propulsive ability but the front legs main function is that of steering and support. The angles in both front and rear limbs help absorb shock as they close and then deliver energy again as they open.
A straight angled hind limb may include a straight stifle and a straight stifle is more prone to upward fixation of the patella or “catching in his stifle”. A rear leg with straight hocks and stifles is more prone to concussive related injuries because the shock absorbing angles aren’t there. A rear leg that is too angled is more subject to degenerative joint disease (DJD) of the hock. That is because of the compressive forces put on the bones of the front of the hock.
Fetlocks with too much slope or angle on any leg can cause damage to the suspensory ligament or flexors tendons. When put under stress an excessive angle causes these structures to become stretched to tight .
Conformationally correct front legs are important to an athletic horse because they support 60% to 65% of his weight. The forearm, knees (carpus), and cannon bone need to be in alignment. If the knee is offset to the left or right and the forearm and cannon bone come in and out of it anywhere but in the center this will cause one side or the other of the knee to wear out faster. If the horse is “back at the knee” it will predispose him to chip fractures in the knee. These wear and tear problems result because the leg is out of balance. This is one place genetics plays a strong role. Some horse may have crooked legs but they may have joints that are made of very strong and well made cartilage.
Knowing how to recognize good conformation comes from looking at thousands of horses and from knowing how all the parts fit together.

My horse has lost all the hair on one side of his face. His face has little nodules all over the same side. I have treated him with anti fungals, betadine and many other shampoos. What can it be?

Since you have tried other treatments to no avail, I would have your veterinarian take a biopsy of the affected side of his face. The biopsy will give you a lot of information that you can use in treating the condition. Right off the bat you might think your horse has a skin fungus but I have seen horses like this that had biopsies that revealed that what they truly had was a type of skin tumor called a sarcoid. A sarcoid is a benign fibroblastic tumor of the skin and is the most common skin tumor reported in horses. There are two types of sarcoids and they are either flat or nodular (verrucous or fibroblastic).

Sarcoids that are surgically removed with no other treatment frequently reappear. When surgical excision is combined with cryosurgery (freezing), immunotherapy such as BCG extract, regressin or Eqstim or chemotherapy such as cisplatin or 5-fluorouracil the success rate increases greatly. These drugs are injected into the tumor once every 10 to 14 days for an average of four treatments.

Although sarcoids in horses are not metastatic they can get very large and sometimes hamper the way a horse moves or the ability to put on certain tack. They can also become inflamed and very irritated. Sarcoids can be very frustrating.

The first step is to get an accurate diagnosis. Take your horse to your equine veterinarian for a biopsy and you will at least be on the right track.

Dr Fisch, do I really need to vaccinate my horse?

When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time on my grandfather's farm. He had several very good horses that were used for anything from herding cattle to racing. But in a time that was not so long ago, veterinarians mostly practiced what is called "fire engine" medicine and very little "preventative medicine". My first pony which I kept until she was 38 and I was 40 something, lost her first foal to "lockjaw" or tetanus because the mare was not given any prefoaling vaccinations and the foal was not given a tetanus antitoxin.
Veterinary medicine has come a long way since those days. Veterinary medicine has pretty well kept up with human medicine and is ahead of human medicine in some areas. One major advance in veterinary medicine is the very effective vaccinations that are now available to help prevent disease.
Thirty years ago, the main vaccines that were available for horses were tetanus and Eastern/Western/Venezuelan encephalitis. In time, flu and rhino-pneumonitis vaccines were developed to prevent respiratory disease in horses. Eventually, after much trial and error a good vaccine was developed for strangles. This can be a very debilitating and deadly disease. At the very best, it is a disease that cost the horse lost training time and the owner much work, aggravation, and money. We now have an intranasal strangles vaccine that is very safe and effective.
I am sure everyone remembers the "West Nile Virus" outbreak a few years ago. The WNV vaccine appears to be very safe and effective. As a reminder, all horses need a booster every six months! I am sure it has prevented many horses from getting WNV.
We also have a vaccine that should provide at least some immunity to the dreaded Equine Protozoal Myelitis (EPM). This vaccine has not been put to as tough a test as the WNV vaccine, but even if it is only half as effective as the WNV vaccine (hopefully it is 100% effective) it should be worth vaccinating your horse. If you have ever seen EPM in a horse, you will agree. We are also fortunate that the EPM vaccine's cost has dropped almost in half since being introduced.
Even grandpa vaccinated his dog for rabies, but horses should also be vaccinated for rabies on a yearly basis.

Doc, I have a mare that had colic surgery and before the surgery was told she had about a 10% chance of making it. She did make it through the surgery and has done well ever since. My question is do you think prayer helps out in situations like these?

Your question is a very good question and it is one that many people struggle with. I am surely no expert but I will attempt to answer your question in three ways which include my experiences, science and biblical references. I have had horses come in to our hospital with various ailments that I thought given the percentages and research available that these horses had very little chance of making a good or complete recovery from their problem. With some of these horses I know that their owners were praying for their horses and in some instances when we would be in the middle of surgery I would quietly say a prayer for the horse. Surely not all of the prayed for horses recovered but some with very dim outlooks did make excellent recoveries from their problems.

Their have actually been scientific studies with control groups of patients not prayed for and prayed for patients. There was a statistical difference on the positive side for the prayed for group as far as a good recovery. These experiments were run in the same fashion as any experiment with medications would be. A certain number were in one group with no prayer and the other group was prayed for and these patients were followed for a certain period of time with all their statistical variants plugged into the equation. The prayer group had better results across all statistical variants.

The Bible says that all things are possible through prayer and faith. Does that mean that everything we pray for will happen if we pray long and hard enough for it? My experience has been it doesn’t. But then whose will are we praying for? Maybe that is one reason the prayers at time seem unanswered. Are the results of who gets cured and who doesn’t confusing? Sometimes we will see a situation where a horse (or person) that is a very genuinely good horse or person and they have lots of problems and you wonder why do seemingly bad things happen to horses and people like them. Is it possible that these horses and people have a higher level of some sort of strength or faith that has been given to them and this is their opportunity to demonstrate their faith to others knowing that in the end they are in good hands? The Bible says that from to whom much is given much is expected. Is it possible that this is why things sometimes seem unfair?

We just had a TB weanling filly from Panama City come in with a severely lacerated extensor tendon. A lot of the cannon bone is exposed and the wound also involves the flexor tendons. The filly was in a very safe, mowed pasture with vinyl fencing. The owners are very nice people. Why did it happen? Will prayer help? The owner said before he left the filly with us “We’ll all do the best we can for her, say a prayer and see what happens”. When it gets down to it isn’t that a big part of what life is all about?

Doc, I have some questions about hay. First of all I have heard horses can get diseases from wild animals defecating in the hay. Is that true? Second, since there is supposed to be another shortage of hay along with dry months in May and June, what is the best kind of hay to feed and how can I get the most bang for my buck?

Yes your horses can get diseases from animals such as opossums defecating in the hay, feed, or just on the grass. They can be carriers of an organism called sarcocystis neurona which causes EPM or Equine Protozoal Myelitis. EPM is a neurological disease that can cause symptoms anywhere from periodic stumbling to complete inability to walk. So one way to prevent this disease is to keep opossums out of your feed and hay supply.

The best kind of hay to feed is excellent quality hay, meaning excellent quality Coastal Bermuda grass hay is better than medium quality alfalfa hay. Hay should be dust free, dry and smell good and fresh. You can get your hay analyzed by the Department of Agriculture or the local ag extension office. This is more important to have done depending on what class of horses you are feeding. Proper protein, calcium and phosphorous levels are very important in growing, lactating and pregnant horses. It is also important to a slightly lesser degree in performance horses. Horses hanging out in a pasture or who go for an occasional weekend ride have more latitude with their nutritional requirements.

When deciding what hay to buy, always let quality be the deciding factor. You may be able to buy lower quality hay for less money but you will need to feed more of it and it usually causes digestive or respiratory problems somewhere down the line. So in the end you probably pay more for the lower quality hay. Your horses’ diet should be based on the forage with grain as a supplement and not the other way around. If forage is the basis of the diet, it needs to be excellent quality for maximum health and performance.

Another way to get the most bang for your buck is to feed your hay in something that doesn’t allow the hay to be wasted. At our hospital we recently bought several hay holders that were built by Hay Holders of America. They allow for very little if any waste and they are built “horse safe” so you can fill it with several bales of hay and not worry about the horses hurting themselves. I bought them for the same concerns that you have. They keep the hay in and dry and they keep opossums out. They are movable and provide some shade. When hay was plentiful and not as expensive, products like this were not as important. Another benefit is that they save a lot of time in feeding hay to the horses. If you would like their number feel free to call our hospital and we can give it to you.

Good luck in finding some excellent quality hay and don’t waste it by having it end up on the ground for the horses to walk on instead of for them to eat.



Stephen D. Fisch, DVM

Doc, How important is it to have my new foal’s blood tested to make sure he got enough antibodies from his mother’s milk?

It is very important. About 25% of newborn foals will have low IgG or antibody levels at birth. There are a few ways this could happen. The first way is that the mother just didn’t produce enough antibodies in her milk. This could be because of nutritional status or maybe the mare herself has a poor immune system. Another way is that the mare “leaked” out her antibody before the foal was born. Some mares will leak milk two to four weeks before the baby is born and will loose all their colostrum. Another way is that the foal did not nurse the colostrum from his mother or he nursed her too late.

The foal’s intestines are considered “open” for the first four hours of life and then begin “closing” for the next twelve to twenty four hours. What this means is that the intestines can absorb large molecules until it “closes” and then it can absorb only small molecules after it closes. The colostral antibodies are large molecules so if the foal does not nurse within the first four hours of life his intestines start “closing” and he does not absorb the protective antibodies. The foal has the greatest ability to absorb large antibody molecules during the first four hours and then the ability lessens over the next eight hours and his ability to absorb large antibody molecules is gone by twenty fours from birth.

The reason that it is important to make sure he has absorbed these antibodies is because they are what protect him from infections such as pneumonia, diarrhea, joint infections and many, many other germs that can cause him problems. Many people think if he doesn’t get sick in the first few days that the foal is home free. Many of these foals with low maternal antibody levels develop diseases such as rhodococcus pneumonia three to six months after birth. These antibodies also protect the foal from common diseases such as tetanus, encephalitis and West Nile Virus.

The test is relatively inexpensive and is well worth it when you consider what you have to loose after going to the expense of having your mare bred and feeding her for a year. If the foal needs plasma to increase the level of antibodies then you will have that knowledge and can treat him accordingly. Good luck with your foaling season.

Stephen D. Fisch, DVM

Doc, I have a yearling Thoroughbred who recently went lame in the right rear leg. She was x-rayed and found to have very small OCD lesions in both stifles. Should I have surgery performed on these stifles or what should I do to help this filly? Also what causes OCD?

If you have it narrowed it down to the stifles then the current trend as far as treatment goes is to inject the OCD lesion with steroids and hyaluronic acid. Previously surgery was on the top of the list for horses with OCD’s in the stifle. Now most veterinarians give them a chance to become sound with joint injections. I like to inject them with either Hyvisc and depomedrol or Polyglycan and depomedrol. We may inject these one time and then again about two to three weeks later. If there is no improvement then 30 or more days past the last injection we will go in with the arthroscope and explore the joint. If the only problem is the OCD lesion then we will curette the lesion back to bleeding, healthy bone. Stem cells can also be injected into the lesion to promote healthy new growth of bone.

After the surgery these horses are given 1 week of stall rest and then about 3 additional weeks of stall rest with hand walking. The next month they are put in a small paddock and then the third month they are turned out in a slightly bigger paddock. Depending on the size of the lesion you can usually resume training after three months. Horses that are not sound at this time have a poor prognosis for soundness at the level they are currently being asked to perform at.

What causes OCD? OCD is part of a complex called developmental orthopedic disease (DOD). It is caused by a combination of nutrition, genetics and other environmental factors. This is why it is important when choosing your breeding stock to know what has gone on with your horse’s ancestors as far as soundness problems are concerned. Also when purchasing a horse you may want to have it radiographed before you buy it to rule out problems such as OCD. Everything is inheritable to a degree. When you put significant pressure on a certain physical trait in your breeding program you loose other good traits. That is why some race horse lines are known for blazing speed but they are also known for unsoundness. You have to balance the speed and the soundness when choosing your breeding herd. That is why milk cows produce a lot of milk but not much beef and they can’t run fast. They were bred to produce milk so they lost their ability to produce beef. If when breeding horses you concentrate solely on their performance traits but not their ability to stay sound you will eventually loose the soundness.

Nutrition is also a cause of developmental orthopedic disease. Nutrition is much more complicated than most people think. It involves much more than feeding a certain percent protein to different ages of horses. It is so important and complicated that I can not possibly say everything that needs to be said in this article. Just know there are many major and micronutrients that need to be fed in certain amounts and in certain ratios to each other. The best thing to know about nutrition is if you are not knowledgeable in nutrition then know someone who is. Don’t guess and see what happens. You can end up with DOD when the nutrition is all done correctly so at least know that you are feeding and breeding correctly and then you degree of incidence of DOD and OCD will decrease than if you were not careful in feeding and breeding.

I hope this helps you or at least aims you in the right direction. Good luck with your filly.

Doc, My eight year old Thoroughbred mare has developed a cough and from time to time she has a slight nasal discharge that comes from both nostrils. Her temperature is always normal. On some days she breathes faster than on other days. What should I do?

There are a few things that could be going on with your mare. She could have allergies which can cause inflammation in her lower airways or she could have pneumonia. I saw an older horse a few days ago and she had cancer in her lungs. He could also have an upper respiratory infection or she could have DDSP (dorsal displacement of the soft palate), periodic epiglottic entrapment and a few other things. Probably what she has is lower airway inflammatory disease or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) or heaves. All those diseases are different names for basically the same thing.

The best thing to do is to get her examined by your equine veterinarian. Your veterinarian will listen to her lungs and pull blood for a CBC (complete blood count) and fibrinogen. The CBC checks for infection and a high fibrinogen level is indicative of an inflammatory process. The next thing that will aid in the diagnosis is an endoscopic examination of the upper airways and lungs. The endoscope will let you see exactly what is going on. You will either see a problem in the upper airways as we discussed previously or you will see fluid coming from the lungs which will either be infection, inflammation, neoplasia (cancer) or a combination of the three. After the endoscopy, you and your veterinarian will probably want to do either a BAL (bronchioalveolar lavage ) or a transtracheal wash. Both of these procedures are aimed at getting a sample of the fluid or exudates in the lungs so that a very accurate diagnosis can be made. One is used if you expect a more generalized lung condition such as allergies or lower airway inflammatory disease and one is used if you suspect the problem to be in a more localized area in the lungs.

After the cytology (looking at the cells under a microscope) and culture are done you will know how to treat your mare. If she has allergies the next step is to determine what she is allergic to and if she has an infection the she will need to be placed on antibiotics. This is a common time of year for horses to show allergies to different grasses and pollen. The extreme heat we have been having makes the symptoms even worse because not only are they fighting the allergies but the heat as well.

If your mare ends up have LAID or allergies then keep your pastures mowed and your barn as dust free as possible. There are different medications that will help the inflammatory process and these must be used under the direction of your veterinarian because if used unwisely they can have serious side affects. If you have any questions, feel free to give me a call. Good luck.

Stephen D. Fisch, DVM

Dear Doc, I have a really well bred broodmare that I was not able to get pregnant last year. I was told that she has cysts in her uterus and that she also has in infection in her uterus. Should I give up on her or what should I do?

You have a few options. Whatever option you choose you need to clear up the uterine infection first. This can probably be done by having the mare’s uterus cultured and biopsied. These lab tests will give you an accurate view of the health of your mare’s uterus. If she doesn’t have too much scar tissue and the infection is caused by a germ that can be killed by an antibiotic or antifungal then you can solve one problem by treating the uterine infection with uterine lavages or flushes and antibiotic infusions. Your veterinarian will decide on which antibiotic to use by reading the antibiotic sensitivity that is done with the culture. Mares with uterine infections are usually treated anywhere from three to five days in a row. You will need to reculture the mare to see if the treatment worked.

Assuming the mare’s uterine biopsy comes back with a grade 2 or better then there are a few things you can do for the cysts. Uterine cysts are a symptom that the uterine lymphatic ducts are not draining well. May people will laser the cysts but if you do not take care of the primary problem of poor lymphatic drainage then the cysts will just be replaced by new cysts. To take care of the primary problem we do a few things. We flush the mare’s uterus with warm lactated ringers solution and give oxytocin after the flush. We also give prostaglandins which will cause the uterus to contract. Along with the western medicine flushes and drugs we use some eastern medicine acupuncture. In eastern medicine poor reproductive ability is caused by a deficiency of “chi” or energy from the kidney. We will acupuncture certain acupuncture points both prebreeding and post breeding in order to stimulate drainage of the lymphatic ducts.

We also monitor the mare’s cycle so that we can breed her only once just before ovulation because multiple breedings make the problem worse. Sperm and semen are foreign objects to the mare’s uterus and they set up an inflammatory reaction in the uterus. Most mares clear this reaction on their own but mares with cysts and other problems have a tough time doing this. Therefore it is very critical to breed this mare to a highly fertile stallion so she will have a better chance of conceiving on one breeding. You can also use a low dose insemination technique which further decreases the amount of inflammation caused by the semen.

Mares like yours require some extra effort and very good management of their reproductive cycle for them to be able to carry a foal to term. But many times if you are willing to apply the extra effort you will get a foal from your well bred mare whereas with normal reproductive practices you might miss getting her in foal again this year. Another option after you get the uterine infection cleared up is embryo transfer. The embryo is flushed from the donor mare on about day seven to a recipient mare and then the cysts are a non issue.

Good luck with your mare and I hope you have a nice foal in 2009.

Stephen D. Fisch, DVM