Managing Missy's Heat Cycles for Co-op Life

This week feels like it lasted a whole month, with some days spent feeling so fatigued and with such aching joints that it was all I could do to get out of bed and do the bare minimum. Fortunately, not every day was that bad, and yesterday I even felt close to "normal"!

Yippee! That makes me as happy as Pyro when turned back out with friends to torment play with!

There has been minimal riding, but thankfully I've been able to stay on top of my chores. This is a two-fold blessing, because I hate placing extra burden on my fellow co-op members when I need to ask for shift/stall cleaning coverage, and I have still gotten my daily dose of horse that helps keep me sane.

I wish you could smell this new first cutting hay we got. I fully understand why all the horses are hoovering it up. 

One of the "chores" I was able to do was overseeing the reintroduction of Missy and Pyro to the "main" herd (Magnum, Ivan, and Nykur). (The cob boys, Disco and Connor, live in the separate "stallion" pasture, complete with *HOT* electric fencing.)

5 ponies peacefully grazing

Miss and Pyro had been turned out separately from the rest of the herd for the past month or so since Missy started going into MEGA HEAT. Of course, the stallion on the property wasn't the problem (thank you Disco, you're the best boy, never change). It was the GELDINGS who were paying attention to her. Too much attention. Trying to mount her while she still has a caslick's from last breeding season attention. 

HE CAN'T HELP YOU, HUSSY

The "rug burn" under her dock she acquired from the tiny icelandic gelding trying to mount her while she was wearing her fly sheet. Thankfully he was too short to reach. 

The co-op pastures are not set up to support that many separate herds. We need to be able to rest and rotate for longevity. After some brainstorming and discussions with my vet, we decided to try Missy on Regu-mate to suppress her estrous cycles in hopes of reintroducing her to the geldings. I had heard of its successful use for managing mares and stallions on the same property, and with no plans to further pursue breeding Missy it was a viable option.

aka "Exorcism in a Bottle"

As you may know, Regu-mate is not the easiest medication to give, especially in a boarding barn setting. It's an oil that can be readily absorbed via unbroken skin, which poses a significant risk to humans, particularly pre-menopausal women. It can degrade the rubber in syringes, and latex gloves are not adequate protection. (Thankfully nitrile ARE.) It can be syringed under a horse's tongue, or top dressed on feed immediately before it's served. After a lot MORE brainstorming, we came up with a solution that would streamline administering it for all co-op members. 

My lab skills from a prior career in microbiology came in handy. Pipetting into the tubes prevents any contamination of the outside of the tube. 

I prepare single doses in plastic centrifuge tubes. (The tubes pictured above are clear, so they have to be protected from light, which degrades the Regu-mate. Since then, I have been able to source amber tubes for the next batch I prep.) These tubes are kept in the climate controlled bathroom at the stable, alongside nitrile gloves of various sizes.

Not pictured: the towel used to block light from reaching the tubes.

When whoever is feeding dinner goes into the bathroom to soak Missy's feed (a choke prevention measure), they grab a tube and gloves in their size to take back out to the feed room. 

The hot pink tube rack serves both as a place to set the tube in the feed room and as a visual reminder to give Missy her daily dose. 

When it's time to feed her, it's simple to dump Missy's mush in her feed pan, unscrew the tube cap, pour the oil over her feed, recap the tube, pull off the glove so it is wrapped around the tube as an added layer of protection, and toss both in the trash. This way, only her mouth and feed pan are contaminated, and all co-op members are aware to not reach into her pan without gloves. 

Special care is also taken to not touch her mouth when putting on her muzzle and fly mask directly after dinner. 

Feedback from my fellow co-op members on this process has been positive so far. It seems as easy and fool proof as we can think to make it. 

Thankfully the air fern has zero qualms with licking her pan clean, so she doesn't miss a dose.

After a solid month on Regu-mate with no signs of coming back into heat, we turned her and Pyro (who was volun-told to keep his momma company when we split the herd) out with the geldings again. 

All 5 yahoos, back together again

Blessedly, it went smoothly, with zero fireworks. They all did one lap around the field together in celebration, then settled in to graze. After they had tucked into the grass for a bit, Pyro DID take full advantage of having his playmates back, running circles around them all and attempting to play bitey face through his muzzle. 

Nykur and Pyro, aka The Wonder Twins, play bitey face in the run in while the older horses flaunt their maturity.

The Regu-mate is doing its job. Missy has shown no signs of coming into heat. I've only observed mare-ish behavior from her once in the past week, when she lifted her tail/peed/winked in response to Magnum running up to her. However, the geldings say she doesn't smell interesting anymore, and there has been peace once again in the herd.

She's 10000% worth the trouble

Additionally, Missy has had fewer instances of diarrhea, and she has this look in her eye, like she's calmer and more comfortable. That confirms in my mind we made the right choice for her by suppressing her cycles. 

Keep on truckin', Miss mare!

I'm curious, have any of you had to deal with rough estrous cycles or administering Regu-mate?