I took cervical swabs this year from some mares which had had difficulty going in foal and came up with some interesting results.

The mare’s cervix needs to be open for the veterinary surgeon to take a swab from her cervix – in other words, she needs to be in season.

This swab is cultured for 24 and 48 hours, either in the veterinary practitioner’s own laboratory or at the Irish Equine Centre and then examined to see whether there is any significant bacterial growth which could cause infection and prevent the mare from going in foal. If the swab is taken when the mare is early in season, the mare can sometimes be treated and covered on the same heat.

When bacteria have grown, a sensitivity test is done to determine which antibiotics they are sensitive to. The mare is then treated with the correct antibiotics only and this helps to prevent antibiotic resistance from developing. The swab can also be examined under a microscope to see what types of cells are present in the mare’s cervix and uterus and further information is gained from this.

These procedures are relatively inexpensive to carry out and sometimes provide very valuable information.

BUSY SEASON

Since the success of the June National Hunt Store Sales last year and again this June at Goffs and this week at the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale, a lot of mares have been resurrected and covered again to thoroughbred sires. Some of these mares had been rested and some had been breeding sport horse foals. All of a sudden, the National Hunt market has picked up strongly – a bit like the house price market in Dublin – and people are tending to cover more mares again.

One mare had gone in foal in June 2013 but had absorbed her pregnancy after about 30 to 40 days. We decided to take a cervical swab and smear from her before covering her again and on examination by the Irish Equine Centre, evidence of a fungal infection was found. This led us to treat her with an anti-fungal pessary and she has subsequently gone in foal at the first covering and has so far stayed in foal. Without swabbing, this fungal infection would have remained undetected.

It has been found that mares which are normal and healthy and clean can often go in foal despite not ovulating until two, three or even four days after covering. This is why it is well worthwhile having a swab taken when a mare fails to go in foal more than once.

We swabbed another mare which had proven difficult to get in foal. This mare had never been stitched since on examination of her vulval conformation, it didn’t seem necessary. On culture she was found to have a heavy growth of E coli.

Since it was May and this mare was difficult to get in season, it was decided to go ahead and inseminate her (she was a sport horse mare). We then put the indicated antibiotics into her uterus for three days in a row and then stitched her (a Caslicks procedure) and she scanned in foal with twins 14 days later.

Pinching twins is not as simple as it sometimes looks.

If the mare ends up with one foal, it is only what was expected. If she ends up with no foal, the veterinary surgeon is probably blamed and if she has a filly foal, you are told that you pinched the colt!

With another mare which had been covered on four separate occasions in 2013 and failed to go in foal, we took a uterine biopsy (which is also relatively inexpensive) and a cervical swab.

The swab showed a significant growth of bacteria and the uterine biopsy showed significant deterioration in the wall of the uterus. This mare was irrigated for four days in a row with the indicated antibiotics and went in foal having been covered for the first time on the next heat. Sometimes the swab reveals nothing but this is still worthwhile since you can then look for other reasons for the mare not going in foal. So the message is simple – spare the diesel and swab the mare.

Louis Hassett MVB MRCVS is in practice in Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co Clare and is a member of the Equine Group of Veterinary Ireland.

Email: hq@vetireland.ie

Telephone: 01-4577976