Wow! Now that is VERY interesting. I have a mare that also comes into heat
just from a ride. She is obviously uncomfortable and has to stop every 15
minutes or so to "skeet" as my husband calls it :)
Just trying to get in a training ride can be painful for her. I have
observed her in the pasture when I think she is ovulating. She starts to sweat
and roll, then she runs for all she is worth for about a minute then she throws
herself to the ground and rolls again. I am not exaggerating when I say she
THROWS herself, as if trying to get something off of her back. This goes on for
about 45 minutes. She is exhausted and dripping with sweat.
I can't really give her anything because she can't stand still long
enough (except to skeet) and won't eat anyway. By the time a shot was
administered and started to take effect, she would be done. I know she is in
pain. If we are not riding her, these episodes occur once a month or so. If we
are riding her, they occur almost weekly. When she is being ridden, she won't
drop and roll, but she does feel like she needs to take off, as if to get away
from the pain.
I certainly understand not every horse is an endurance horse. I love this
mare and love riding her but I have others to ride so I don't force the
endurance on her. A nice casual trail ride is about all she can endure.
Thanks for sharing that, Sandy. I also learned about DSLD through ridecamp
which another one of my horses has. It took a long time to diagnose it but once
I read about it and showed it to my vet, it all came together.
I had a challenging experience with a mare " cramping" at races-
the more we conditioned, the more she came into heat. The vets were baffled,
as she would cramp, be extremely uncomfortable, but was not
metabolic-heart rates in the 30's to 40's, and not colicky. for 2
years I consulted vets-Nancy Loving and CSU drew every blood test
possible. All levels-se, etc-chemistries, enzymes, etc were normal. One CSU
Vet ruled out gastric ulcers, then said " you endurance people never want
to accept that some horses are intolerant to exercise ". So, we entered a
phase of drawing labs, riding 20-35 miles, then re-drawing labs. they finally
believed me that the non-stop heat cycles were the problem. 2 vets said to put
on a bovine patch. 2 said do regumate. ( this was not possible with my erratic
work schedule ).
one large animal vet @ CSU was doing a research project of spaying
28 mares with the same complaints-all competition mares, 26 arabs. this was
laparoscopic-standing scope-not the hemorrhage complication of open
surgery. Zoe had the scope dec 2004-back to work jan 2005, she has never been
pulled for cramps since. she also still has a few small, light heat cycles a
season-hormonal influence from the adrenal glands.
