High and Dry

Resorption, a very big problem in the horses(mares), the mare will be in foal at 14,21,30,45 and 60 days come out barren at 75 days when we check, it can happen any time upto nearly four months. Sometimes it happens between 14 days to four months. This is one of the major embarrassments to the practitioner. So when every time I re-check the mares I am a bit nervous. Eventhough it is well known that some mares resorb their conceptus/foetus without expelling upto four months of pregnancy, it is very difficult to explain to the people around you. Many owners immediately think that we have mistaken a cyst for an embryo. I should admit that I may have done that on a few occasions, but I would say it may be less than 2%, because when the mares come for breeding examination for the first time I make a note of the cysts, the location and size, and when I scan mares for pregnancy at 14 days, if the mare had a cyst before and if she had a double ovulation I recheck after 24 hours to confirm a single pregnancy. Inspite of these efforts if I diagnose a cyst for an embryo, it is god given what else I can say. Once, in a farm I scanned a mare at three months, she was in foal, when the owner decided to sell after a month he wanted me to confirm it again, she was barren this time. I was shell shocked and started having a re-think of continuing as an equine practitioner, my confidence dipping to the lowest. I could not face the owner. But to my luck the owner did not show his anger in front of me. After a few days when I had a chance to go back to his stable for tending a colic, I enquired a Bangladeshi groom working there, he told me that the mare aborted about ten days after I scanned her last time( 3 months). The groom of that mare a Pakistani who was preparing to go on vacation covered it up as he did not want to upset his owner as it may have a negative impact on the bakshish(incentive money) he would get before his departure. He left with a handful of gifts but I was left high and dry.
(to be continued)