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  Discussion on Regumate use in mares
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Posted on Sunday, Jun 4, 2000 - 11:22 am:

I have a friend who breeds horses. She is breeding seven mares this year. So far, four mares have been bred and confirmed in foal. Once the vet has determined a mare to be in foal, he checks the hormone levels to determine if regumate is necessary. Of the four mares tested so far, ALL FOUR have shown very low progesterone levels, and ALL FOUR have been put on regumate. How likely is it that all four horses genuinely need to be on regumate to maintain pregnancies? All four mares have foaled before, without the use of regumate. It seems unusual to me for someone to have a whole barn full of mares who need regumate. Is it possible something is causing low progesterone levels in all of these mares? They receive the best of care, and are very well fed (translation: overweight).

Posted on Monday, Jun 5, 2000 - 7:53 am:

Hello Andria,
See this article for the information you seek on this topic:
The Horseman's Advisor: Equine Diseases: Reproductive Diseases: Problems Keeping Mares Pregnant: Progesterone, Alternogest, and Regumate Use in Horses to Prevent Early Embryonic Loss
DrO

Posted on Monday, Jun 5, 2000 - 8:37 pm:

Interesting article. It seems like everyone I know has at least one mare on regumate to maintain a pregnancy. It is my impression after reading the article that the regumate is probably unnecessary, but if that's true, then why are so many vets so quick to prescribe it?

Regumate question aside, is a low progesterone level something to be concerned about in a broodmare? Is the fact that four mares at one facility tested low in progesterone indicative of a problem? Could something be causing this (environment, management, etc.)?

Thank you for your time.

Posted on Tuesday, Jun 6, 2000 - 6:57 am:

I think it is the nature of a procedure, pregnancy, that has a built in failure rate of 20 to 30%. We start looking for reasons and ways to treat it.

We know that progesterone is essential for maintaining a pregnancy but there has been no relation found between what veterinarians diagnose as low progesterone levels, usually less than 4 ng/ml, and early embryonic loss (EEL). Naturally occurring progesterone deficiency and it resulting in EEL appears to be quite rare in mares not having obvious systemic illness problems. I know of no unusual management factors that might be resulting in such a problem in mares that appear healthy.
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