Hypocalcemia in Pregnant and Nursing Mares

Hypocalcemia is a metabolic imbalance that can affect any horse, but affects pregnant mares and nursing mares much more often than other horses. For unknown reasons, this syndrome is seen much more in Miniature Horses and Shetland ponies than big horses.

Although I had read about this syndrome for years, I never had any experience with it until it hit my farm last fall. Because so many veterinarians are not familiar with this issue, I almost lost my mare.

I found the mare down in the pasture with her four month old colt, unable to stand. I finally got her to her feet and immediately noticed her staggering gait. I finally got her to a stall and observed a thumping in her groin. My first thought was "thumps", so I immediately separated her foal. (if you suspect a mare with this syndrome always separate the foal as the foal nursing will make it worse) The mare was unable to eat, had her mouth clenched and was staggering.

I called a veterinarian and described the symptoms and asked if it could be hypocalcaemia. The veterinarian thought I was crazy. She said it only affects late term mares or mares with foals two weeks old or younger. I tried to tell her that it can affect a Shetland at any time. She wasn't buying it, and nicely explained that she could not come and advised I try another veterinarian.

By this time I knew my mare was dying before my eyes and I was getting desperate. I called another veterinarian, but he was not available. Finally I called an Equine Dental veterinarian and explained to him on the phone that I could not get any other vet and to please come and look at my mare. Thank god he came as fast as she could.

As soon as he examined her, he knew we were in big trouble and the mare was close to death. Her heart rate was through the roof and he could hear the "thumping" sound. I explained to him about hypocalcaemia and that we needed to give her IV liquid calcium. I will never forget him telling me "we are either going to kill her or cure her because if it isn't a calcium deficiency we will cause her to have a heart attack." I told him to proceed and said a prayer. I knew it was our only option. Before we gave her the calcium we pulled a blood sample.

He started the IV calcium very slowly and within minutes her jaws unclenched and her heart rate slowed. Neither of us really knew how much to give so we kept infusing her slowly until her heart rate went back to normal. We were in shock over the difference; she had stopped staggering and already wanted to eat again. It was like a night and day difference in only 15 minutes.

We stood and watched her, and thought of what a miracle it was that he came and had liquid calcium on his truck and that he took this leap of faith with me.

A couple days later he emailed me the blood test results which were a real shocker. This mare had zero calcium or electrolytes and was as close to death as an animal could be. I sent the results to the first veterinarian I had called; she was totally shocked and apologized for not believing me.

Always trust your gut intuition and educate yourself as much as possible on the symptoms and treatments for various horse ailments. It could save the life of your horse!