Can a 6 week old foal cope without milk...

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Calekio

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Title says it all really...

Mare isn't well and is drying up, we are hoping when she improved she will start to produce milk again.

Vet has said at 6 week he would cope without milk and put ihm on creep feed.... i'm not so sure though...

Help...
 
If he has been creep feeding with his mom, I would feed him the feed she was being fed along with a milk replacement pellet. Around here they have Foal-lac pellets. Good luck!
 
That's awfully young to go without milk. Can you get a milk replacer and see if the foal will drink it from a bucket? He needs to keep nursing on his dam if her milk is to come back in, but I would think that even bucket feeding twice a day, plus milk replacer pellets as Minih suggested, would be very helpful for the poor little one. Good luck!
 
I personally would give him milk replacer or probably goats milk, rather than leaving him to get by on creep feed only.

I'm sorry to hear your mare is unwell.
 
I have raised a 4 week old on Foal Lac pellets in an abuse case were the mare simply could not support the foal. Baby did fine and grew up healthy and strong despite looking like a newborn at a month of age prior to taking him off mom.
 
Thanks for all the advice. Convinced now after this post and talking to breeders i know he will need milk replacer.

He'll be kept with mum and whilst she still has a little milk for him i'm hoping that by supplementing him with a bottle or bucket will also still keep him tugging at her, therefore when she improves hopefully bringing her milk back.

What i'll have to phone companies about is to find out how much to give him though..

Was just surprised that the vet said he'd be fine on a creep feed as they can be weaned at 6 weeks! (not advised though)
 
I am praying for ya. Goats milk is an excellent replacement milk for any animal. I hope he does well.
 
We raised a filly on milk replacer after losing her dam when she was barely a week old.. I recommend bucket feeding as it'll be much easier, we never could get our little gal to nurse a bottle, absolutely refused it, poured it in a bucket "just to see" and sure enough she drank it straight down and that's how we did it from there out.. Once she got to the point of eating grain then we started dressing her grain with just the milk powder with just one feeding of liquid replacer at vet's recommendation, and as she took to the grain better and drinking more water then she was switched over to just the top dressing, come weaning age we "weaned" her off the powder and went with a mare/foal grain.. She's a 'fat' (we'll use "fluffy"
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) and VERY sassy two year this year (oh gosh, our lil diva will be a 3 year old in just a few months!
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) and doing great
 
Your described plan sounds good........Your mare could very possibly bring back her milk once she's feeling better. And having her little one right there will encourage it.

If your mare has been sharing her grain with her foal in a dish, I bet you can teach him about drinking milk replacer OR eating milk pellets out of a bucket or dish too. It would save you a whole lot of headaches.

I am rather surprised at your vet for not suggesting either the milk replacer or the milk pellets!
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He'll eat from mum's bucket.. quite greedy too so hopefully he'll take something from a bucket as well.

I did say to my vet about milk replacer and he said i didn't want to go down that route as would have to do it for 6 months. Thinking now he did mention milk pellets (which is made by a company over here... called body builder/milk pellets) but when i phoned the company they said it was only a build up feed, he's need a milk replacer and if he needed extra weight or a pick me up to give him that as well... but it wouldn't give him what he needed.
 
I am a strong believer in Foal Lac Pellets. Or Foal Lac Powder - Does you local feed store carry it? Mine did ( well, the one that is one hour away) but, it was well worth the trip. The jug should tell you how much to feed your foal. In my opinion a 6 week old foal defiantly needs a milk replacer.
 

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