Im still waiting

My poor mare has had enough,not only has she gone bald and swollen on the face of which i think is hormone related and the vet not sure.Vet has treated her and taken tests and still her face is huge.No-one knows whats going on.

She had started bagging up 8 weeks ago and is huge.Her belly has dropped,in fact at one time it looked like it shrunk,she was all sunken in at her sides but has now gone back to normal.Her back end is all floppy and jello like and has been like that for 2 1/2 weeks,her tail head is prominent and we still have nothing.Vet came out last week to take pics of her face and he reckoned she would have foal this weekend gone and guess what nope.

She really needs to get him out so her face can settle down,surely it cant be much longer????????


I must admit if her face settles back down after she has foaled she will never have another foal again. Or am i wrong in thinking that it will happen again.

hormone related ??? Id think that would be all over rather than just the face. This will teach me something here. As far breeding her again. I would at least one more time to see if it will happen again.

Now I did think of something, A friend of mine, if she worms with a certain wormer, Her fillys face swells. It lasted a very long time. She wormed again with out knowing it contained the same thing, and she swelled again. She had to have steroids and bute to get it to go away. Its just a thought. She had a build up of the chemical in the wormers. Maybe mention this to your vet, they had to do blood work to find the problem.

Wish it was so simple,she has had blood tests,skin scraps and still nothing.Ive changed her bedding her feed and thats not made a difference.Vets have had her on antibiotics,finadyne and they just drawing a blank.

I reckon she allergic to her foal,either that or he taking everything from her.will try to get pics but its not easy to take pics of.her lymph nodes all swollen.

Please please pray she gets this foal out real soon.

The poor girl. But it sounds like it will be soon.

Use 35cc childrens benadryl, cherry flavored and put it in a syringe and in her mouth.. This will reduce the swelling.. Give her more in a few hours if that does not work.

I will give that a try,many thanks

When Tucker was a year old, I walked out there one morning...His entire head was swollen beyond belief!!!!! His eyes were swollen shut, as well as his nostrils. His tongue was so big, he couldn't close his mouth. I was sure it was a snake bite....I gave him Benadryl....It took a couple of days for the swelling to go completely down. I never found any fang marks. The vet suspects it was a black widow spider.

Could it be possible that she's carrying a dead twin? The infection could sure make her lymph nodes swell.

Not sure Ragdoll,she did have twins and they popped one early on.

If she had an infection it's likely she would not eat and it would be real obvious she was ill. Horses just cannot hide that one from us.. She may just be like some of us humans and swell up when we are PG or that time of the month.. The benadryl will not hurt her or the foal.. When is she due?

She may just being trying to drive you crazy on purpose.. I swear they do that..

Bluejay is right, if a horse has an infection that would be bad enough to swell her face, she would be off feed, and looking very ill.

I have a mare whom a gave lutalyse to once and she bloated up, swelling everywhere, and she in the winter suddenly her face was swollen and she had huge hives all over her body. They loose the fur because when there is that kind of fluid, the hair can't stay in place.

I bought some equine anti-histamines from my vet to have on hand in case she has another outbreak... that last one we have no idea what caused it because it was winter and everything was the same... But it was cheap, and it works.

I do remember my vet saying to me at one time that sometimes pregnant mares will begin to swell in odd area's... no real explanation why, but if they do it once, they should do it everytime.