Mastitis in a Mare

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carlenehorse

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I have a friend whose mare had her first foal 6 weeks ago and everything was going fine and than she developed mastitis. The vet told her to take the foal off of and bottle feed her. They did that and the mare is getting antibotics. The foal had diarrhea and last night he didn't make it. The vet was there the whole time and gave him IV with no luck.

They are extremely sad and so is the mare.

Her questions are these:

Should she breed her again?

Will this happen again?

Does mastitis happen continually on mares who have had it before?

Her milk has chunks in it.

Thanks Carlene
 
I'm very sorry for your friends loss. My heart goes out to them
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I'm not of any help on the mastitis (even though I'm vet assistant/pharmacy tech). We had that happen in my mother's Shih Tzu. Since they have seperate qtrs. the vet had Mom put a patch over that teat so the pups wouldn't nurse it as it was contained in just that 1 mammary. Well, the pups still got it of/ mother dog hated it. So Mom just weaned the pups since they were 5-6 weeks old, still supplimenting them with puppy milk (so they were just weaned off mamma).

From what the vet told us in her is that she could be rebred and nurse puppies (no different than a milking cow getting mastitis). Not sure if it's any different in the species or not (we didn't rebreed her & Mom got her spayed a few months later
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Also, I grew up on a dairy farm- the cows that got mastitis were treated, and of course their milk was thrown out since you couldn't use it. After treatment they were returned to the milking line (after checks on their milk that is). Some took longer courses of treatment than others.

But I'm not really sure on the mastitis in a mini. Not sure if it all applies like the other animals we've had experience with....

I wish them luck with their poor mare & hopes things get better for them/her.
 
Thanks for replying I am not sure in minis either. That is why I posted hoping someone could help with this.

I thank you for the information and your experience with the cows and dog. I hope it is the same.

Carlene
 
Our mare Mercy had it twice but prior to her foals arriving. She produces milk like a Holstein cow....

Our repro vet had us strip her udder twice a day and infuse mastitis medication (it was for cows and I think it had Nolvasan in it - I do know it was a Ft Dodge product) into each teat via the nipple (hard when the udder hurts! - dodged a lot of hooves and three people could not hold her) and she was on SMZs orally. It is painful for the mare - the stuff coming out of her udder first was chunky and we did not get it all and she had stuff like yellow butter coming out the second time. The vet was puzzled as she had it on both sides - normally he said it is on one. We also had her milk cultured to identify what bug we were targeting - I cannot remember what it was offhand. The first foal had to be bottle fed donor colostrum but then was nursing from Mercy without a problem. He developed an autoimmune disease as a yearling and needed medication for a year but last I heard of him, he ws doing well and was off medication.

She went on to produce three more foals without incident. Stall hygiene is important - some mares's udders contact the ground when they lie down and get up and the place where Mercy was boarded when Mahalo was weaned did not keep the stalls clean due to mismanagement.

Condolences on the loss of the colt - hope they get the mastitis cleared up and the mare goes on to produce without incident.

Denise
 
Denise thank you so much for the information I will pass it on to her. She sent me pictures of her milk that she expressed in her hand and I have saved them for futher reference.

The vet thinks that the foal was a dummy foal as he wobbled and ran into things alot. He also got a infection from the milk with caused him severe diarrhea. The vet did say that he was farily hydrated at the time of his death so they were getting enough milk into him (foal lac) with the syringe feedings.

Thanks Carlene
 
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So sorry about the loss of the foal, but as to the mare, once the mastitis is cleared up, it shouldn't be an issue again. I have a mare here who developed mastitis after weaning her foal several years ago. It was cleared up with antibiotics and she has gone on to have several more foals since with no problems relating to mastitis.
 
Thanks Becky I appreciate the input. I am glad to know that this will most likely not happen again.

Carlene
 

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