I have a maiden mare at day 330. She has a smallish tight bag but I can only get a few drops/squirts to test. Has anyone had experience with this? Also, I had my vet order seramune just in case. Does it hurt to give it "just in case"? I'm probably over thinking, but want to be prepared just in case. Since a transfusion would be more stressful and by the time they test the levels, it would be after the 8 hour window? Any comments or help on either would be appreciated. Thanks
Kristin Posted From: 68.80.87.199
Posted on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 12:30 am:
Well, my mare had a smallish bag at 330 days. I couldn't get liquid out until day 335 or so and even then it wasn't easy. She foaled on day 353 and is producing enough milk to feed a whole herd! My mare wasn't a maiden, but I've read around here that it isn't uncommon at all for a maiden to bag up at the last minute. My mare started to really bag up about 5-7 days before foaling. Hope that helps until someone else can give a better answer.
Sandy Posted From: 4.227.172.133
Posted on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 07:33 pm:
Jen, I wouldn't even be concerned about a maiden mare having a smallish bag at day 330. Unless of course you have concerns that she has been on fescue, then you may want to look toward giving her something to encourage milk production, but if you know she hasn't been on fescue, then I wouldn't worry. Remember, a mare can carry a pregnancy up to 400 days. My friend's mare is at 349 days today, and she also still has a smallish bag and is a maiden. But my friend isn't worried. Frustrated, yes, but not worried.
jenkoby Posted From: 64.12.116.22
Posted on Thursday, May 13, 2004 - 09:40 pm:
Thanks for your responses. I just can't help but to worry. Anyway, she's been on a dry lot and has only had a few bites of grass when hand walking her. Poor thing. The reason she's on a dry lot is because I overseeded the pastures and want to give them a chance to get a good start. I'm pretty sure there isn't any fescue where I grazed her. The waiting game is for the birds! Any experiences with seramune?
Jen Koby Posted From: 64.12.116.22
Posted on Saturday, May 15, 2004 - 10:10 am:
On day 331 I was able to get some good squirts and tested it twice. Both times we were at 150. Hopefully we're getting closer. Now I'm getting nervous! and excited!
Sandy Posted From: 4.228.252.18
Posted on Saturday, May 15, 2004 - 01:43 pm:
My friend's mare that I had mentioned previously foaled this morning at 8am at 351 days, and still hardly had a bag at all! My friend called me at 6:30 this morning and said that she swore her mare was having contractions and for me to hurry (you have to understand, I'm kinda like the neighborhood horse mid-wife ) So, I headed over there and asked her if she even had looked at her bag at all this morning and she said no, because she just wanted to hurry back to the house to call me. So we went out to the barn so I could check the mare and her bag was still fairly small, I'd say maybe 1/4 of what a normal bag would look like, and not very hard, somewhat flabby...but...she had tons of wax and was dripping milk! Sure enough, she kept on having pretty hard contractions, the whole while still munching on her hay. And by about 7:30 things started kicking in. She had a pretty rough labor and she really had to push hard and was kinda giving up. The foal's two feet and just the muzzle were out and she stood up and just stood there doing nothing for the longest time, and then started to push hard again while standing...thought for sure she was gonna have that foal while standing up. She finally laid down and started to push hard again, but that baby just wasn't getting anywhere, so I finally got in there and pulled and baby finally came out and both mom and baby are doing great. The foal is a buckskin colt, just adorable!
Sandy Posted From: 4.228.252.18
Posted on Saturday, May 15, 2004 - 01:45 pm:
Oh, forgot to mention that I had just looked at this mare yesterday and we could only get a tiny drop or two of milk out of her and it was a very dark golden color and very thick and sticky, like glue. But, it just goes to show that a maiden mare can go anytime, no matter what the bag looks like or the amount of milk you can get out of them.
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