My mare has a newborn filly that is a month old. Jazz, the mare, has lost a lot of weight...you can see her ribs and starting to see her backbone easily. The filly already likes to eat oats but seems to nurse a lot also. Jazz also acts totally different...she acts really depressed and like she has no energy. Before, she hated getting a bath and would dance around. The other day I hosed her off and she stood in literally, one place and didn't move. Is this normal for their behavior to change? What can I do to make her gain more weight? She eats lots of hay, square bale, and beet pulp soaked with grain twice a day.
She is likey losing weight due to lactation, a lot of mares do. My boarder has a STB that is an easy keeper, when she's not lactating all she needs is 1/4 scoop of 12% per feeding, but when she's nursing a foal she gets a scoop of LegendMaker, a scoop of Fat and Fiber and 2 scoops of beet pulp plus all the hay she will eat and she still looks terrible by the time the foal is 4 months. We always wean her foals at that age to help her get some weight back on before winter. I'm not enough of an expert on nutrition to make up a ration for your mare (plus I don't know anything about her), but she needs to be on a broodmare ration for the protein in addition to the beet pulp. The other thing I find very helpful is grass if you have access to pasture. It is very hard for them to gain weight already lost by lactation, you should speak to your feed dealer, they should be able to recommend a qualified animal nutritionist to assist you in getting some weight back on her.
I would have to agree, that there are some mares that will loose weight due to lactation. I too do not do our feed ration, my husband does, but a lactating mare must be getting enough to keep her going and baby to as most of what she gets goes to feeding baby. I too also had a mare that we would wean early comparred to the rest of our foals due to the fact that she had trouble keeping weight on. It never really seemed to matter what feed ration she was on, she lost weight. Although with our feed ration the mare was able to keep a baby at her side for 6 months instead of the 4 months like the previous owners.
They need alot of vitiams and minerals, there is some stress pacs out there too, becareful with corn , steamed rolled oats is a good alternitive too, there is a product called calf mana too that is helpful especially if you just need to adjust one horses feed and don't really want to get into the feed mixing and understanding of the rations . Find a good feed dealer that knows what they are talking about to help you out. Not just some behind the counter clerk. go to a county co-op type of place that deals with grain/feeds/seeds type thing.
im new to breeding horses, but ive bred my dog, and 5 yrs breeding cats. and ive researched all i can to make sure i take the best of care of my animals. theyre all the same. nursing a baby take a lot out of them. a skinny mother usually means shes taking good care of the baby. all you need to do is make sure she gets fed well. remember this baby took most of the nutrients from her for 11 months! and now shes nursing it. its only completly natural shes skinny!
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