Is it possible for pregnant mare to show heat?

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djskid

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We have a maiden mare that is overdue (today is day 368!!), she has been developing normally, looks pregnant, we've seen and felt the foal move, has a small udder and hasn't shown any signs of heat since she was bred........until yesterday! She was squatting and peeing in front of the stallion's stall! We hand breed so our dates are definite-the last day that she took the stallion was June 28. When our vet was out last week to do teeth on some of the others, she looked at her from the doorway and said not to get too worried about not having a foal yet, and that it definitely looked like she was in foal. We've done the nail test on her all along and we are still getting the same result that she is carrying a colt (we've had the nail be wrong on the *** but have never had it be wrong on in foal or not-a few years ago on a different mare, the nail said not in foal but the blood test the vet done said in foal and it ended up that the mare wasn't in foal)!

So, is it possible for a very pregnant mare to suddenly start to show heat signs?
 
Yes, it can happen. Mare's hormones can go a little wacky when they're pregnant. Also, a mare can "spray" out at a stallion as a way to tell him BACK OFF.

So, if your mare is obviously pregnant, I would suggest it's one of those two situations. The third possibility isn't a good one....that she "slipped" her foal, but

you probably would have see that happen.
 
It is also possible for a mare to have a false pregnancy...an enlarging belly and no discernible heat...that goes on right up until time of anticipated delivery. Have you had any sort of solid verification that she was recently actually in foal?(I wouldn't consider a 'nail test' as any sort of verification, to be blunt.)I would agree that some pregnant mares can indeed show heat signs, that said.
 
Anything is possible.

At 368 days it's time to find out if she is really pregnant or not. In my practice I would palpate her or ultrasound her.

Dr. Taylor
 
Is personally lean towards her not being pregnant. It's not unheard of but its very overdue for her. I agree nail test is not a good enough indicator (even though my own experiences have all been correct with it)
 

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