Ok so Im a relative novice with breeding and desperately reaching out for advice. I apologize in advance for the long post but feel history is needed. I have a 9 yr old maiden mare, weve tried to breed her the past 3 yrs with no success at all. She is our very first foal, and an amazing indivdual so we are pretty much desperate for a foal out of her. 1st yr we got a really late start (vet kept hmming and hawing, jerking us around) so we sent her to people we completely trust and only had one shot bc of the time of year. Did a pre breeding exam, culture came back clean, repro tract leads us to believe shes a prime candidate, no pooling, but (and all 3 vets who have examined her commented on this) a super super tight cervix, the tightest theyd ever come across) that only relaxes slightly when close to ovulation. 14 hours post insemination raging infection. Flushed her, gave her antibiotics and learned our lesson that she needs oxytocin afterwards. 2nd year sent her back to the same place, game plan in mind. Bred her cooled ai to a different stallion, 3 breedings that yr and nothing. Oxytocin and flushed afterwards. Semen was only ok (sorry cant remember specifics). 4th dose showed up dead so we tried live cover to my stallion (who has only bred 2x before both conceiving after 1 cover) and still nothing. 3rd yr, did a uterine biopsy. Came back grade 2(?) 50%-80% chance of conceiving and carrying. We figure the odds could be a lot worse, so try again. Finally convinced a repro vet to come out, seemed highly motivated but I question that now. First insemination (24hr after hcg) went great, very little fluid after 1st oxytocin shot, 2nd cleared it all. Here is why I decided to believe my dedicated repro vet was sketchy. We bred the mare back to my stallion, who had only done LC before, was having trouble extending. no we hadnt done a real semen testing on him at that point, they collected him her last cover yr 2 and immediately inseminated (only time they tried that, and he was on the same property so it was immediate) so saved some to see if he would extend with the normal stuff(?) and it didnt live through the night. Hes less than 2 hrs from me and since we got to keep her home this time around I could literally be there as they collected and extended trying something different. Got it straight home and in to her. The vet who collected saved some to observe and 14hrs post collection (12ish hours after 1st insemination) said get your vet out, if she hasnt ovulated inseminate her, hes still at 50% progressive. My vet finally called me back 2 hours later and she wouldnt do it, said it was all dead, wouldnt even come see if she ovulated. Same exact thing happened the 2nd time we inseminated her. 3rd time didnt even happen because my vet couldnt get out to inseminate her. So Im at a loss (not just financially lol). Im asking yall seasoned breeders for your opinion. In your opinions is this mare not getting in foal bc of her super tight cervix and not expelling fluids, just dumb luck ok semen and unreliable vets or something else? Not sure if its relative, but her dam never ever had a problem getting in foal when it was monitored ai, as in first time settled and carried full term, no oxytocin necessary no retained fluid. Ive since learned to moniter, ultrasound and inseminate so that saves a lot on expenses but I still have to pay for collection. As desperate as I am for a foal out of her is this a mare you would keep trying or give up on? I know how necessary the oxytocin is to her after breeding, but could that be expelling everything before it has a chance to take?
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 04:59:26 +0000