Miniature mare pregnancy

Question
I have a four year old miniature mare that I purchased several months ago.  She was supposed to be pregnant.  She was looking really round and was supposed to be almost eight months along.  She all of a sudden is looking flat on the sides and no longer looks pregnant.  She never showed signs of losing the foal that I ever observed.  Is there still a chance she is in foal or has she lost it without showing any signs?

Answer
Hi Karen!  Your question is a tough one.  Without really knowing if your new mare was bred when you bought her makes this even harder.  Did you happen to notice any discharge on her vulva, tail or legs the day you noticed the drastic physical change?  When you said "all of the sudden" was the change over night or over a week a more?  Horses can loose weight pretty quickly if they have internal parasites or if they are experiencing any oral discomfort ... as young as she it, it's possible that she lost some teeth and is replacing them which could be making her eat less for several days.  Pain is also a powerful stress producer and stress can really take the weight off a horse too.

If you regularly see your horse on a daily basis, I would really expect that you would have noticed a messy discharge if your mare had lost a foal.  So it's really hard to say and all I can really do is guess because we don't have a pregnancy confirmation.  I would recommend that you have her examined by your veterinarian who can tell you for sure.  The exam would be an expense but if there are problems with the foal - if she is carrying one - then you would have a better chance of a happy ending finding out as soon as you could.  Besides you would feel better with a positive diagnosis :)

Please let me know if you have any other questions ... wish I could have been more help with this one!

Thank you!
Judi