questions re: pregnant pony
Hi, I have some concerns about my pregnant pony. She's 1/2 shetland 1/2 mini and stands about 42" tall and I bred her the first 2 weeks of July '07. According to the horse pregnancy calculator she's due in about 4-6 weeks and this little mama is huge. This is her 2nd colt and the last one I bred her to a 52" welsh stud and had a nice size baby, but I don't remember her being this big. So I'm wondering if she's having twins. Most everything I have read about twins isn't good for neither the mother nor the babies.
Does anybody have any info or has anybody had any twin babies? She is an easy keeper so maybe she's "just healty" as my grandmother would say. I'm sure the vet could do an ultrasound on her and it would be a bit costly but I also don't want anything to happen to her. If anybody has any info I would appreciate it, and thanks in advance.
Hi Donna!
JessiI haven't dealt with too many twin pregnancies in horses but I will share with you what I do know:
Horses aren't really built to carry more than one fetus at a time, and it's rare to give birth to two live, healthy foals. It is common, however for a mare to ovulate 2 eggs, have them both become fertilized, then later re-absorbs the fetus when it dies, usually due to mal-nutrition.
Most problems are seen in late gestation, when it becomes noticed the 2nd fetus didn't die off at an early stage. Now the mare is trying to provide nutrition (and uterine space) to 2 foals, when she can only accommodate one. It's common to have 1 foal significantly larger than the other, but the percentage of losing both foals is much higher.
Unfortunately, I don't think much can be done this far in her gestation period. Even if she was carrying twins, I would think your vet wouldn't want to risk anything. Had you done an ultrasound earlier, and she was carrying two foals, your vet may have elected to eliminate one of the fetus' to ensure there wouldn't be a later problem.
I hate to say it, but the price of an ultrasound would have been WAY cheaper than having twins and health problems for either mama or her babies...
03:48 PM CST