Monitoring the pregnant mare in the ICU

The clinician treating a critically ill pregnant mare essentially has 2 patients, the mare and the fetus. This paper describes ways of monitoring the condition of the fetus and treatments that may be implemented in an effort to improve the probability of fetal survival and successful parturition. The clinician, in concert with the owner, should have a plan developed for management of the pregnancy should the fetus or dam be severely threatened and intervention, such as induction of parturition or cesarian section, becomes necessary.