# Pregnant or fat?



## Ellie.Del (Nov 11, 2019)

More pictures for a better view


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## JCnGrace (Apr 28, 2013)

Her flanks aren't filled out so I would vote no on her being pregnant. If she were mine I'd do a power pac worming, treat for ulcers and a round of psyllium.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

The best way to tell is to get the vet out and have then examine her. 

By the angle of her belly she might be in foal. Have her stand square and take a picture of her from behind. If she is in foal her sides will usually be uneven depending on which side the foal is growing.


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## Ellie.Del (Nov 11, 2019)

As said in the post I wormed her two weeks ago with equimax. And as far as I know she can’t be scanned for ulcers if pregnant because it is something we have thought about and she is showing no signs of ulcers. Thanks for the advice tho I will keep it mind : )


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## Ellie.Del (Nov 11, 2019)

And we have had vet out for blood test and the vet that did it said she did look pregnant and we had the vet out to scan or also said she was pregnant but I’m not convinced as she had other symptoms. And we seen her belly sit on one side as that is what it does most of the time and we’ve seen it move to side to side while she was stood perfectly still and we think we may have seen foal Movement like a kick 🙂


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## Ellie.Del (Nov 11, 2019)

Sorry scan said she wasn’t pregnant


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

I'm voting no because I've seen a lot of mares that have had foals in the past with that type of belly when they weren't pregnant. Since the blood test and scan done by the vet were negative, that would confirm it to me. If your mare were that close to delivering as her size would suggest, the vet should have no difficulty at all determining if she were pregnant. 

You don't say how old your mare is, but the older a mare is, the more her belly will tend to sag as the back muscles age. You also don't say how much you are feeding the mare. If you are overfeeding, she may still gain weight even if being worked. Some horses such as my mare and another mare at my barn gain weight mainly in the belly. You'd think the one mare was ready to deliver any day, because her belly is so large all the time, but she's 28 and there are no stallions nearby. 

When my mare was overweight she had a belly that moved around and her flanks appeared to flutter out as if a foal was moving around in there. She has never been bred. Udders can also be deceptive since a horse that has had a foal in the past will have a larger udder. Some mares also will have fluid leak out of their udders with hormonal changes or diet changes. 

Hopefully you are not letting your horse's appetite determine her size, since if she is not pregnant she will need her diet managed. My horse became overweight because I was letting the barn owner determine her diet, she was feeding my (ideally) 750 lb mare the same 30 lbs of hay the 1300 lb warmbloods were eating, and she said my horse was "so hungry" all the time. That is about double what a horse my mare's size needs to eat. Horses that consume too much hay can be given slow feeder nets to help them not eat as many calories.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

Something else to mention:
Horses get bellies like that also if their diets are too high in undigestible fiber and too low in protein. If hay or grazing is too low quality, horses hold onto it in their guts much longer in order to try to ferment more nutrients out of it. This causes the so-called "hay belly," which is the horse holding onto pounds more of hay in their intestines than they would if the hay was a high enough quality that they could get enough nutrition out of it while passing it through more quickly.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

Depending on how far along with a pregnancy, with horses scanning I'd not able to pick up on the foal. She needs to be manually examined so the vet can feel the foal. This is done via the anus so no risk of infection.


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## Ellie.Del (Nov 11, 2019)

She is 15 years old and it’s not for definite that she has had foals before and we have no history on her. She is on 1 kg of high fibre mash and 2 scoops of fibre chaff split between two feeds one in the morning one at night. And little amounts of grass. As we can’t give her a whole paddock because it would be gone in days she has a hay net in her field Shelter yet she never eats it. If we don’t give her the feed in the morning she is dangerous to be around bucking rearing bronching galloping around before we even get in the field.


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## Ellie.Del (Nov 11, 2019)

She was on a scoop cool mix and two scoops of chaff but we changed it because her energy levels and lack of excercise and her belly hasn’t really changed dramatically more it just keeps changing shape


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

I have one that looks more pregnant when not than when she is. One that pregnancies never show and one that looks like she swallowed a house. And I have one that has looked pregnant since we bought her 12 years ago. She'd even fool you with the behind pics as she throws her belly out to one side. This is a recent frontal view. See belly on both sides. If her diet changes and she isn't on a quality protein supplement this happens rather quickly. She is my one that gets a regular sand clear treatment and power pac'd to keep it under control. Skip any of those and she looks pregnant.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

I got a chuckle at this comment from @gottatrot


"Hopefully you are not letting your horse's appetite determine her size"


I think I too often let MY appetite determine MY size!!


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## WildHorses85 (Oct 1, 2019)

A simple manual exam will tell you. Have the vet back out and have her checked. Otherwise, she's just fat


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## Cheri666 (Jan 1, 2011)

If she gets really nasty when you reduce her feed, that is one sign of ulcers. Or bad behavior. Because, horses, xD I know Ulcergard is expensive, but perhaps give it to her for two weeks and see how she does. She may be less nasty. Horses make acid all the time, (unlike us, who do it only when hungry,) so if she has ulcers they would be constantly irritated unless buffered by food. My turds get free choice cheapo grass hay to munch all day, and are less food aggressive at feed time. 

As for pregnant, mares are notoriously hard to determine if they are or not. Seasoned breeders have been embarrassed by a broodie’s opposite end result of whatever the breeder says. And blood tests are reported to give higher false negs AND false positives. Basically, prepare like she is, but don’t be surprised if she does NOT foal by the 12th month that you’ve had her. Also, her udder looks like she’s definitely nursed at least one foal in her past. A maiden mare ~usually~ has much smaller teats. I say ~usually~, again because, horses,...


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

I'll say this about blood tests and urine tests. If you don't know the breeding date you have to do repeat testing as there are two types of tests. Each type tests for a different hormone. Each hormone has an expected range at an expected time in the pregnancy. if you aren't in date range the tests will give false negative results. Older mares (just like women) have hormonal changes as they age and certain tests are no longer reliable as the range for older age crosses the range for pregnant mare and you'll get false positives. manual palpation by a skilled vet gives the best results.


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