Mare infertility is a frustrating problem with a variety of causes. Fortunately, many of them are treatable. One manageable condition is fungal endometritis (inflammation of the inner uterus lining, or endometrium).

At the 2012 Hagyard Bluegrass Equine Symposium, held Nov. 1-4 in Lexington, Ky., Ryan Ferris, DVM, MS, an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences at the Colorado State University (CSU) Equine Reproduction Laboratory, discussed managing fungal endometritis in broodmares.

"While we don’t see (fungal endometritis) very often, when we do it can be an important cause of infertility," he relayed. This ailment can be difficult to both diagnose and treat, he said.

Ferris said that there are a wide variety of causative organisms for fungal endometritis, but the vast majority are Candida sp., Aspergillus sp., and Mucor sp. type organisms