What’s The Deal With Tall Fescue And Broodmares?

If you don't manage an active breeding farm in Central Kentucky, chances are pretty good you've heard of problems with tall fescue grass, but you may not be aware of when or why it can be bad for certain horses.

At its recent client education seminar, Rood + Riddle Equine Hospital's Dr. Maria Schnobrich gave the basics for those of us vaguely wondering whether or not we should be afraid of fescue.

Firstly, Schnobrich said, it's important to understand what it is about the grass that causes problems. The University of Kentucky's Horse Pasture Evaluation Program has yet to find a single pasture that doesn't contain tall fescue; the question is only how much of it shows up in a given field. On average, Schnobrich said UK's data finds it's about 20 percent of a given field, but that can swing wildly depending on the location and management.

“You may have a mixed seeding that you do initially but if the pasture is stressed, the fescue may outgrow the other grasses,” she said. “So while you think initially you may be doing a mixed proportion and have it under control, as you start to see some of the reproductive effects or other things … it's important to think that these pastures are dynamic.”

Fescue can become infected with a fungus called an endophyte which has proven a useful relationship for the grass over time. The presence of the endophyte helps the tall fescue become resistant to drought and pests. Unfortunately, the endophyte will also produce a toxin called ergovaline, which causes decreases in progestin and prolactin in mares. Much is still unknown about the way ergovaline impacts horses, but research indicates its levels are low between January and March in Central Kentucky and may rise astronomically between April and June. There can sometimes be a second spike in the fall. Somewhere between 80 and 100 percent of fescue in the wild is infected with this fungus, but having it on your property doesn't necessarily mean you've got the toxin in your horses' diet.

Most adult horses in work and breeding stallions seem unaffected by ergovaline. Yearlings may demonstrate inhibited growth and more problems with physitis, or growth plate swelling. The biggest problems seem to be in pregnant or nursing mares.

A pregnant mare encountering ergovaline may have a longer gestation (sometimes as long as 13 months – as if pregnancy isn't tough enough already) and then deliver larger than average foals who are not well-muscled. The mares can then produce smaller amounts of colostrum than average, and what they do produce may be of poor quality. The mares may also take longer to come back into heat after foaling than expected. Foals may show symptoms of hyperthyroidism and poor immunity, possibly due to the inferior colostrum quality.

“If you start going through the list and you have a few of these symptoms on your farm, I think it's important to think of fescue,” said Schnobrich.

Pastures can be so dynamic that Schnobrich says sometimes the symptoms may be limited to one field or one barn's worth of mares who happen to be ingesting more tall fescue than horses elsewhere on the same property.

Once a pasture has reached a tipping point with too much fescue, it's not practical to try removing all of it and starting over. Instead, pasture experts suggest trying to dilute the amount of dangerous fescue with something else. There are two varieties of fescue which cannot become infected with the fungus, or managers could add clover or alfalfa seed into their mix. Keeping pastures short and mowing before seed heads form can also help reduce the amount of ergovaline a mare might encounter.

Schnobrich also suggested managers feed extra grass or alfalfa hay during the times of the year when ergovaline is most likely to spike as a way to dilute how much fresh grass the horses will eat. If you can take a pregnant mare off a field with tall fescue and have her graze elsewhere, Schnobrich suggests doing it somewhere between 30 and 90 days prior to foaling.

If you're worried you're already stuck with too much tall fescue, Schnobrich also said administering domperidone beginning 30 days from foaling may also help combat the impacts of the ergovaline.

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Podcast: What Do You Need To Know About Dystocias

The latest episode of Rood and Riddle Veterinary Pharmacy's StallSide podcast has been released and features a discussion with Dr. Maria Schnobrich of the hospital's theriogenology department.

In this episode Dr. Peter Morresey and Dr. Bart Barber along with Dr. Schnobrich tackle the issue of managing dystocia on the farm. Learn about the importance of timing, communication with your veterinarian and warning signs of complications. Also included: the link between murals, chickens, and equine reproduction.

Schnobrich said dystocias occur in about 10 percent of pregnancies, with slightly higher occurrences in some breeds. The birthing process is a rapid one for horses, which also means that foaling complications can develop quickly. Schnobrich offers an overview of a standard foaling, as well as a few tips to recognize and react to a dystocia or other atypical foaling.

Among her suggestions:

  • Start a stopwatch when the mare's water breaks to help you know when the foal should be emerging from the birth canal. Foals should be fully emerged 20 to 30 minutes after the mare breaks water.
  • Ideally, veterinarians agree it's best not to intervene and pull a foal if the foal looks to be in the proper position, has a normal amnion, and is emerging at a normal interval. A more relaxed environment tends to result in a better foaling.
  • Schnobrich suggests that for owners who have never foaled a mare, the best pregnancy plan may be to board the mare at a facility with a staff experienced in foaling as her due date approaches.
  • An ultrasound ahead of delivery can help anticipate whether a red bag delivery may be on the horizon, and may provide time to provide treatment to preempt the tearing of the membrane that results in the red bag.
  • Dystocias are considered an emergency not just because of the foal's fragile oxygen supply, but also because the foal can do damage to the mare's internal organs if positioned wrongly.
  • People can sometimes mistake colic for a foaling that's not progressing properly; a visit from the veterinarian can usually discern the difference. Older pregnant mares may sometimes bleed from the vulva which can also be mistaken for a foaling problem, but that can also be caused by a varicose vein. An immediate trip to the clinic isn't always the best course in those cases, since it's preferable to let a healthy pregnancy progress rather than do a c-section if it's not necessary.

You can find the video version of StallSide on the Rood & Riddle YouTube page and the audio version on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, iHeart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts. Enjoy the video version below.

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Ask Your Veterinarian Presented By Kentucky Performance Products: What We Know About This Year’s Placentitis Cases

Veterinarians at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital answer your questions about sales and healthcare of Thoroughbred auction yearlings, weanlings, 2-year-olds and breeding stock. If you have a question for a veterinarian, email us info at paulickreport.com .

QUESTION: We saw an increased number of nocardioform placentitis in the 2020 foaling season. Why are some years worse for placentitis than others?

DR. MARIA SCHNOBRICH: In the 2020 foaling season in Central Kentucky saw an increase in the incidence of Nocardioform placentitis. The University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory reported that this was the second worst year for Nocardioform placentitis behind 2011, when they had 328 confirmed cases. In 2020 there were 207 cases confirmed. Likely these numbers represent an underrepresentation, as not all cases are submitted for evaluation.

Nocardioform placentitis is a type of placentitis that is associated with isolation of a slow-growing, gram-positive family of bacteria that are found in the placenta after delivery or abortion. These bacteria (Crosiella, Amycolytopsis, Actinomycetes) are thought to originate from the soil, but frustratingly we do not know at this time how the disease process starts or what is the reason it develops in some mares and not others. This type of placentitis usually causes well-demarcated lesions in the placenta where a mucoid plaque develops and causes the placenta to be disrupted, and may limit or severely compromise fetal development. The outcome of mares affected with this type of placentitis can range from abortion to normal foals and does not always correlate to the severity of the lesions.

Due to the increased incidence of this disease last year, many involved with the broodmare management, including veterinarians, farm managers, owners and researchers worked together to collect and compare data. The UK Gluck Equine Research Center's Dr. Barry Ball is currently compiling data from this past year and will be making his team's findings available to the public.

Dr. Maria Schnobrich

Frustratingly, despite many attempts to reproduce the disease, we do not know what causes or initiates Nocardioform placentitis in the mare. While researchers continue to work on this, we have learned several things which I will summarize below.

  • The incidence of Nocardioform placentitis seems to be associated with weather. When conditions are hot and dry (as they were in the late summer and early fall of 2019), there is an increase in disease. When conditions are wet and cold, we see a decrease in this type of placentitis, while other diseases like leptospirosis may increase.

    Evaluations of soil samples from 2019 are pending and may help give us insight on whether this bacteria was more common. Previously the bacteria found in affected placentas could not be found in the soil from the affected farms when the soil was cultured much later in the year. The new data from 2019-20, when the soil was cultured closer to the time of possible infection, may be helpful in identifying why we had an increase.

  • Nocardioform placentitis does not occur only in Kentucky, as might have been previously thought. There are cases reported and diagnosed in animals that have never been in Kentucky, though we in Kentucky at the moment seem to have the highest incidence.
  • Natural cover is not required to produce the disease. Confirmed cases of Nocardioform placentitis occurred in mares bred by artificial insemination and even embryo transfer recipients.
  • Screening for the disease remains problematic as we have no sure way of identifying the issue. Diagnostic tools that may aid the owner and veterinarian in identifying affected patients include:
  1. Clinical signs such as premature udder development, and rarely vulvar discharge.
  2. Transabdominal and transrectal ultrasound which may identify lesions before they become advanced. The downside of ultrasound in the pregnant mare is that the entire placenta can't be visualized, so some cases may be missed. The advantage is this may allow you to identify an issue earlier in the course of the disease and implement treatment then.
  3. Evaluation of hormones to assess pregnancy (estrogens and progesterone). Screening may result in identifying cases with significant pathology or compromise. In cases that were presented to a referral clinic, all animals had abnormalities in these values, though this needs further research to determine how useful a screening tool it may be.

This image shows the ultrasound image generated from a transabdominal screen of a pregnant mare. The blue arrow is pointing to an area where the uterus has separated from the fetal membranes and placental disruption is caused by a dense fluid. This area correlates to our findings of thick mucoid debris caused in areas affected by Nocardioform placentitis.

  • There seems to be little resistance to commonly used antibiotics when isolates from the disease were tested for susceptibility in vitro. Doxycycline (81-96% sensitivity) and TMS/SMZ (80%-95%) were incredibly effective when isolates from 2020 placentitis cases were tested in the lab.
  • The data regarding which treatment for this type of placentitis is most effective is confusing. Research by Gluck's Dr. Carleigh Fedorka demonstrated that cases that were treated actually had a worse outcome than untreated cases. Additionally, the only treatment which seemed to have a positive effect on pregnancy outcome was Firocoxib (Equioxx), an anti-inflammatory. We have to remember though that this data reflects animals that were treated because they were identified as having an issue, and so likely had more severe disease than those untreated animals. There are few situations in which an animal identified with disease would have been left untreated, as this usually results in a poor outcome.

This picture shows the brown discoloration caused from Nocardioform placentitis that can be found on the fetal membranes after delivery. Often there is thick, viscous debris that has been described as similar to “peanut butter” in consistency.

In summary, Nocardioform placentitis continues to be a sporadic but significant issue for the Thoroughbred industry. While it may affect us worse in certain years it has highlighted our need for vigilant monitoring of the pregnant mare and a continued effort to identify early markers of pregnancy compromise. As we now have seen trends related to weather this may give us an idea as to which years will be worse, but discussion with your veterinarian and farm manager about screening and treatment is recommended as it is a complicated issue without a clear recipe for management.

Dr. Maria Schnobrich grew up in Boston where visits to her grandparents' farm and riding lessons at a young age sparked her interest in horses and large animals. Dr. Schnobrich graduated Magna Cum Laude at Brown University followed by attending veterinary school at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a Diplomate of the American College of Theriogenology.

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PR Special Fasig-Tipton October: How Do They Set Those Stud Fees?

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS EDITION OF THE PR SPECIAL

The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings Sale rolls on, and the Paulick Report has the reading material you need to go along with it in the latest PR Special.

In this edition, bloodstock editor Joe Nevills speaks to the decision-makers at some of Kentucky's top stallion operations about their processes for setting stud fees – a number that can have ramifications on a stallion's entire career.

Darley's Australian shuttle stallion Astern is the focus of this issue's Stallion Spotlight, with Darren Fox discussing what makes the son of Medaglia d'Oro an attractive prospect for breeders. In the Breeders' Cup Buzz, Nevills asks participants in the upcoming Breeders' Cup to recall their most vivid memories of the 2015 renewal, the last time the event was at Keeneland.

Dr. Maria Schnobrich of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital covers why some years are worse than others for placentitis in Ask Your Veterinarian, and finally, we dive through the Fasig-Tipton October catalog to spotlight some of its young stallions in Second-Crop Sire Watch.

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS EDITION OF THE PR SPECIAL

Thanks, as always, to the sponsors of the PR Special. Your continued support is crucial to the functioning of our publication.

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS EDITION OF THE PR SPECIAL

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