Maiden Mare - Foaled

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mdegner

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Our maiden mare gave birth to healthy little filly a couple of hours ago. Problem free birth, baby active, mama active but, she doesn't have much of a bag. She was about a week early on the foaling and we were able to express a little bit of lightly yellowish tinged clearish liquid that is not sticky. Is this the early stage colostrum?

Is there something that can be given to the mare to make the milk come in faster? Just curious as I think I may have read that somewhere.

Again, both mama and baby are active and baby is trying to nurse. Is this one of those let nature take its course and the milk will come in soon? We do have Foal response and goats milk on hand should we need it......

Thoughts, advice, recommendations?
 
I dont know if there is anything you can give her to make her milk come in or not. Maybe someone else knows???

But have you tried milking her by hand? Or using one of the homemade syringe milkers that is listed on the "mini info" articles? I can never get much milk by hand. But can almost always get enough using the syringe milkers.
 
There is a product called Domperidone that you have to get from a vet. It will help her milk production, but your foal needs colostrum now. Also you can give the mare a shot of oxytocin that will sometimes help. You have to get that from a vet also.

Good luck with your new filly and congratulations!
 
Domperidone / Equidone will help the milk production, but you've only got about 12-24 hours for the foal to absorb colostrum orally. That is how they get their immunity and without colostrum, or enough colostrum, they will get sick and die (maybe weeks down the road).

The vet can do a simple / quick on site blood test (a snap test) to evaluate if the foal got enough colostrum, and if not, then the vet can do a plasma transfusion by IV that will give the foal the immunity it needs to stay healthy. It is essential for the foal to get that colostrum from mom and if not enough was received, a plasma transfusion is life saving (and actually not as expensive as you might think... we've had to do it and it wasn't as much as I would have initially thought -- it's done right at your farm / in the stall).

Good luck!!!
 
3 pulls of milk from a teat are enough to raise a foal. FPT in horses is far more common due to foal issues rather than mare issues.

Oxytocin does not produce milk, it only lets down milk already made. Unless you are milking a mare to feed a foal, oxytocin is not helpful.

Dr Taylor
 
Oxytocin acts directly on the smooth musculature of the uterus in all species to induce rhythmic contractions, although in some species the uterine cervix does not respond to oxytocin. The responsiveness of the uterine musculature to oxytocin varies greatly with the stage of the reproductive cycle. During the early phases of pregnancy the uterus is relatively insensitive to the effects of oxytocin, while in the late phases the sensitivity is markedly increased. Most authorities attribute this varying response to the varying levels of estrogen and progesterone during the course of pregnancy.

[b]Oxytocin also has been shown to exert a milk ejecting effect, occasionally referred to as the galactogogic effect. The actual mechanism by which oxytocin stimulates the release of milk from the mammary glands is not known with certainty, but oxytocin is presumed to act on certain smooth muscle elements [/b]in the gland.
 

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