Deep Creek Veterinary Services

2. What should I vaccinate my horse for?
All horses should receive tetanus, sleeping sickness and West Nile virus vaccines on an annual basis. Horses that travel to competitions, go on group trail ride or are exposed to other horses nearby should be vaccinated for strangles, influenza (flu), and rhinopneumonitis (rhino), all of which are highly contagious. The vaccine for strangles is administered intra-nasally and is done annually. The vaccine for influenza and rhinopneumonitis is given every 3 months. These are recommendations for the Okanagan Valley.

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3. Does my horse need his teeth floated?
All horses should have their mouths examined annually starting at the age of 2 years. Young horses have a lot of changes occurring in their mouths in the first five years of their life and problems detected early can prevent permanent damage later on. These days, horses do not spend as much time grazing as they would in the wild and therefore develop sharp points on there teeth which need to be filed off - called this floating. When a horse wears a bridle and especially a noseband, the gums and cheeks are pushed into these sharp points causing discomfort and even ulcers. Routine dentistry is critical to the performance and longevity of your horse.

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4. How much will breeding my mare cost?
We strive to offer quality artificial insemination services at competitive prices. Please follow the link to our Price List for approximate costs of services that we provide.

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5. What is Embryo Transfer?
You may have heard the words before but were unsure of what it was all about. Here is your chance to learn a little more about it. Embryo transfer (ET) is exciting because it gives us a greater opportunity to breed the best to the best. We have been using frozen semen for a number of years, which allows us access to the best stallions, but ET gives us access to the best mares as well!

ET involves the removal of the embryo from one mare and placing it into the uterus of another mare. Why, you might ask, would anyone want to do this? Some common reasons are:
• Valuable mares may have more than one foal per year
• Young mares can carry embryos from older mares
• Competition mares are able to continue their showing career while other mares carry their foals
• Mares with reduced fertility may be able to donate embryos to reproductively healthy mares
• Recent technological advances in ET have greatly improved its success rate making it more available to the average horse owner and breeder.

Embryo Collection and Transfer
The mare whose embryo you want to transfer is called the donor mare and the mare that will actually carry the foal for the entire pregnancy is called the recipient mare. The best embryo donors are mature, reproductively sound mares. Collection and transfer is less successful in older mares, immature mares (<3yrs), barren mares and mares with an inflamed or infected uterus. Pregnancy rates vary from 15% with sub-fertile mares to as high as 75% with reproductively sound mares.
The donor mare is usually bred by artificial insemination (cooled or frozen semen) and she is monitored daily by ultrasound to determine the exact day of ovulation. Knowing when the donor ovulates is important because the embryo needs to be collected 7 or 8 days after ovulation. Recovery of viable embryos before or after this time is unlikely. Those of you familiar with embryo transfer in humans and cows know that fertility drugs to initiate super-ovulation (large numbers of eggs released per estrous cycle) are used. Unfortunately, these drugs do not work in horses and we are limited to only 1 (if lucky, 2) embryos per cycle.

The embryo is flushed out of the mare using a special catheter that is inserted through the mare’s cervix into the uterus. Warm fluid (specially formulated to keep embryos happy) is flushed in and out of the uterus. The embryo is caught in a special filter. At this stage in its development the embryo is barely visible to the naked eye and a microscope is required to find and handle it. Recipient selection is critical. The recipient mares must be reproductively and physically healthy and should be of a quiet disposition. The donor mare and the recipient mare will have their heat cycles synchronized so that they both ovulate at the same time. This is important for survival of the embryo in its new mom. Synchronization of ovulation in horses is challenging and may take a few attempts to get it right. For this reason, it is convenient to have multiple recipient mares per donor mare to ensure that the best possible recipient is made available for the embryo.

Storing and Shipping Embryos
Now this may already seem complicated, but there is yet more to come! Embryos can also be collected, cooled or frozen similar to semen, and then sent virtually anywhere in the world. It won’t be long before you will be ordering your designer embryo via the Internet. If you are interested in embryo transfer or have any questions, please feel free to contact us. The approximate cost for an embryo transfer is $2500 per flush. This does not include the stud fee or cost the cost of the recipient mare.

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6. Now that my mare is pregnant, what do I need to know?
Broodmare management for one year:
Spring
One month prior to foaling: vaccinate for diseases prominent in your area ie tetanus, sleeping sickness, influenza, rhinopneumonitis,west nile virus. This boosts the mares colostrum so that when the foal is born, it will have all the necessary antibodies. Also deworm mare around the time of foaling so that foal is exposed to as few parasites as possible.

A week before due date, open caslicks if mare has one.

Move mare to foaling facility as early as possible so that she adapts ,is comfortable and so that her immune system can make antibodies appropriate for that environment (no less than one month).

Foaling – save placenta, have foal examined at 12 hours of age so that blood can be drawn for a CBC and Igg ( to determine whether or not foal received enough colostrom). If Igg is low, foal can be tubed with colostrum from another mare. After 24 hours however, it is too late to do this procedure so the 12 hour guideline is critical. Mare should also be examined at this time.
Foal 2 months old – deworm ( then deworm foal every month until a year of age)

Foal of non vaccinated mare:
3 months - tetanus/sleeping sickness vaccine
4,5 months – tetanus/sleeping sickness booster
6 months - influenza/rhinopneumonitis vaccine
- strangles intranasal vaccine
- west nile virus vaccine
7,8 months - boost all of the above

Foal of vaccinated mare:
6 months – tetanus/sleeping sickness vaccine
- rhinopneumonitis
- strangles intranasal vaccine
- west nile virus
7 months - boost all of the above
8 months - boost all of the above
9,10,11 months – influenza vaccines and then every 3 months

Mare – check mares teeth and float if necessary, administer any necessary vaccines at this time before re breeding.
Mare that is to be rebred should be short cycled 5 days after the last day of the foal heat or wait until 26 days post foaling and have her evaluated by ultrasound for uterine health. A culture should also be done at this time.

After breeding - confirm pregnancy and check for twins ( 14 – 20 days from last day of breeding )
- caslicks procedure if necessary
- minimize stress in the first 60 days post breeding and do not administer any medications
- mare should have final pregnancy exam at 60 – 70 days
- ensure that mare has adequate nutrition to support lactation (this is the time that she is burning the most calories and will lose weight if you don’t increase her caloric intake) Remember, good quality hay or haylage is the best feed for horses and can usually be fed free choice to lactating mares. Some mares will still get too fat which also should be avoided as it decreases conception rates and can contribute to epiphysitis in the foal.
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Summer, Fall – good quality pasture is always best

Winter – good quality hay or haylage and free choice water at all times

Last trimester – ensure mare has balanced ration and especially enough calcium and phosphorous for building bones. If you are unsure have your forage tested and the mares diet evaluated by a veterinarian or qualified nutritionist.

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7. What should I know before breeding my mare with frozen semen?

Relative to fresh-cooled semen, the use of frozen semen in mares has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of frozen semen are that stallions from all over the world can be used and the semen can be purchased and stored for years. Unlike fresh-cooled semen, which can have logistical nightmares in co-ordinating stallions, couriers and airlines, frozen semen is very convenient. It can be purchased in advance and stored at your veterinary clinic. When your mare needs to be bred the semen is present, not delayed or held in an airport or at customs. The disadvantages include slightly lower conception rates and the need for more frequent veterinary examinations of the mare during each heat cycle.

Frozen semen is sold in ‘breeding doses’. A breeding dose contains a fixed number of sperm (the number needed to achieve conception). The semen is stored in plastic straws that are either 0.5ml or 5 ml in size. Because the concentration of sperm varies from stallion to stallion, the number of straws per breeding dose will vary. This is why when you purchase a single breeding dose of frozen semen, you may receive anywhere from 1 to 15 straws. Most stallions that offer frozen semen do not offer a live foal guarantee; you purchase the semen and hope to get as many foals as you can.
When using frozen semen, the timing of the insemination must be more precise than when using fresh-cooled semen. For best conception rates, the mare must be bred between 12 hours prior to ovulation and no later than 6 hours post ovulation. If only one breeding dose is available then breeding post-ovulation is most reliable. This means the mare must be examined every 6 hours as she approaches ovulation. This requires that the mare be at a veterinary facility. To more accurately predict when ovulation will occur, drugs that induce ovulation can be used. The drugs that we most commonly use are Ovuplant or Apl (Hcg). These drugs can be administered to the mare once she has a follicle greater than 35mm in size. Ovulation usually occurs 36 to 48 hours later.

Because more frequent examinations can be stressful on the mare and time consuming and impractical for the veterinarian, we would like to encourage stallion owners to adopt breeding contracts that provide ample doses of frozen semen to employ a new simpler insemination scheme. This new protocol allows veterinarians to manage mares for insemination with frozen semen using a protocol similar to that used for cooled semen. The protocol involves single daily examinations, use of the ovulation – inducing agents Apl or Ovuplant, and 2 inseminations timed to occur at specific time intervals from administration of the ovulatory agent. This protocol has been tested in both clinical and laboratory fertility trials and has proven to be as effective as the other more time consuming protocols.

Breeding with frozen semen has become a reliable way for mare owner’s to breed to proven stallions from around the world. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding breeding your mare.

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