Hi,My mare had a foal on the 12th October, a gorgeous HEALTHY buckskin colt, last year I wasnt so lucky. She had a little bay colt in Sept last year who unfortunately was very mildly dummy. Due to bad vet advice I lost him at 3 days old when he turned septic and died. At the time I consulted a local vet (who lives an hour away) but wasnt happy with his advice after the THIRD TIME I had called him, so put my mare and foal in the float and took them to see another vet in the area. They did what they could for him, but I knew before we even got him there that it would be to late.
The next day I had a long discussion with the vet about what went wrong etc. She said he had obviously picked up an infection, which was possibly because he didnt get enough colostrum or that he could have been born with the infection, which could have contributed to him being mildly dummy.
I had a very generous life foal guarantee with the stallion owner so wanted to send my mare straight back to the stallion. I asked the vet what I could do to prevent a repeat of what happened. She suggested giving my mare monthy antibiotics incase there was any infection in her uterus/placenta during her pregnancy. She said I could give her injections or a powder to put in her food, I went for the powder cause my mare doesnt like injections very much.
I gave my mare Trimidine morning and night at the start of every month on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th of the month for her entire pregnancy. I just mixed the 2.5 scoops into a small wet feed of bran/breeder, sometimes adding a little molassas. The result was a lovely little colt. Unfortunately my silly mare retained her placenta so had to take a trip to the vets anyways, but it gave me the opportunity to get my little guy blood tested to make sure there wasnt going to be a repeat of last year and there wasnt, he was healthy! Although, when the vet was removing the placenta she said it did show signs of infection and she believes that if I wasnt giving Cherrie the Trimidine that I probably wouldnt have had a foal!
As for how it effects the foal, well it hasnt hurt my little fella one bit, hes huge, lol. But best of all, hes healthy!
My mare was preg tested yesterday and is in foal to a different stallion this time. Shes again on Trimidine, fingers crossed the retained placenta doesnt effect her pregnancy. She was AI'd last cycle and the vet said she got in foal but lost it, either because the semen was crap (5%) or she had some lingering infection from the retained placenta. She AI'd her again (semen quality was 75% this time) and put her on Trimidine straight away, one dose a day till her preg test yesterday. Now I'll start giving it to her the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th of each month again, twice a day. Fingers (and toes) crossed it all goes well!
If you have any doubts about your mare carrying to full term, check the advice of your vet for sure, but Trimidine was certainly a good experience for me!
Good luck!
Tracy 
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