7Likes
She assured me at the time of purchase that they had had her vet checked and made sure she wasn't pregnant because they had been worried about that, I didn't have her vet checked as she was priced extremely low for how amazing she was ($1000) and I already adored her and had ridden her a few times. So I said ok and never even thought about it again. I figured if the vet said she wasn't, then she wasn't.
However some things have started me wondering again and I'm getting suspicious that maybe the vet was wrong. She has gotten HUGE in 7 months, all in her belly and I can't decide if she just has a hay belly or if its something more. She also seems very sluggish to me, glazed look, anti-social with the other horses, and very very hesitant to leave a walk most of the time. I thought she just had a mellow personality but now even walking she just seems weighed down like a pregnant lady. This is the first mare we've had and so we are unsure if she has had heat cycles since we've had her. We assumed she was in heat when we brought her home and once after just because she would squeal at our two geldings and just seemed altogether PMSy, however she never showed any other signs of heat and that could just have been her getting used to her new pasture mates. Do mares usually spray urine ect when in heat or is that only some of them? She also has gotten progressively more and more obsessed with food, I've had some what I considered some piggly horses but she puts them all to shame. If she had free reign of her food I don't doubt that she would eat all day long and never quit. As it stands she has been getting 1/3 of a half a square bale morning and night (they get one full square bale a day between three of them) so she by no means is getting an excessive amount of feed.
I know I'll probably get razzed for this and told to "call a vet" but I wanted to get opinions first because of the circumstances. I feel like maybe I'm just being paranoid, if she IS pregnant she has to be at least 9 months along at the very least. I will attach pictures of the difference between 7 months ago and now so you can see and compare what an enormous difference there is. I guess my questions are, what are the chances that the vet was wrong, do you personally think this sounds like pregnancy or am I just being overly paranoid, does anyone know the best way to feel for movement, and is that much of a change in 7 months time possibly just due to hay belly on the feed schedule she's on? She hasn't been ridden this winter as a busted trailer, snow, and INSANE Alberta winds have kept us pretty much out of commission, so her activity level is pretty low atm. It seems like a long shot to me for her to be pregnant but like I said I'm starting to wonder and opinions would be helpful, or at least make me feel less like I'm being overly paranoid.
