Baby worry!!

[mightymiracles]

SO as some of you know (I am fairly new to site so many will not remember) I rescued 2 mares this last may. I did not realize the older mare (12yr) was pregnant, well we got her the first weekend of June and about 3-4 weeks later she blew up like a balloon. She had a bag ("that we didnt notice as she wasnt pregnant when I got her") from previous baby so we thought in the next couple months, no luck. Started doing my research ( I have had many foals before) and came to this website and well after reading all the stuff here, I am scared to have a mini foal!

I guess my question is my mare is still pregnant and was ultrasounded begining of Nov. She had a fairly lg. foal but still quite a bit of fluid so vet said at least a month, but it was healthy and moving and looked good. mom has done well up until this last week where she has started to not finish her feed. This mare was a real pig when it came to food and not she could take it or leave it, doesnt finish her hay and will after a long while maybe finish her grain. That has been going on for atleast 4days. No real bag to speak of, has a little in front of her teats, but nothing in her teats, not filling up at all. I worry about hyperlipemia or hepatic lipidosis.

Anyone have any thoughts?

The baby is definatly moving back and dropping. She is secludded at night and only turned out with one other mare during the day. I just worry about the lack of appetite knowing her personality before when it came to food.

Thanks for any input

 

[Maple Hollow Farm]

If she has started to go off of her hay then there is a good chance she will foal real soon. Just watch her and check to see how loose the skin around her tail is getting and watch for a major change in the shape of her belly. Also it is really good to keep some kind of lubricant on hand in case you have to help also make sure and have your vet number programmed into your cell phone if you have one! Good Luck and let us know what she has!

 

[Minimor]

It's fairly normal for a mare to cut back on eating late in her pregnancy; as the baby takes up more and more room, there is less capacity for food, and so the mare eats less--she will eat small bits at a time, but perhaps return to the feed fairly often. We don't notice this so much in all our mares, but it's been very obvious with several of them. We make sure the mare always has feed available so she can eat whenever she wants.

 

[Stef]

Our one mare did that last year during the late part of her pregnancy. She would eat a little bit at a time, then after she had the baby she was back to eating normally.