Lactating Mare

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Bondama
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Lactating Mare

Postby Bondama » Wed Oct 26, 2005 8:58 am

I have a 14yo tb mare who is lactating, although her last filly is close to 3 years old! She was not bred back in all the time since. The funny part is that she allows my daughter (age 12) to milk her!! We discovered it during a bath a few weeks ago - daughter went to wash her ninnies and one squirted. Of course, to a 12 year old, it was hilarious and the squeezing began. :wink: ...so she milked her into a pan and gave it to the cats, who loved it. The mare doesn't seem to mind - no cow kicking or anything - she stands quietly. Was just wondering if she's having a false pregnancy? Or what? Any thoughts?

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Postby Roguelet » Thu Oct 27, 2005 6:10 am

My first question would be: Did you ever seperate the mare from her filly, or is the almost 3YO filly still with mom? If she's still with her, it's entirely possible that even as an older 2YO, she has nursed from mom enough (for comfort, not nutrition) to keep mom producing milk. If nursed off of or milked, a mare can continue to produce milk indefinitely.

So, my suggestion would be to seperate mom from the filly, don't let your daughter milk the mare (that stimulates milk production just like nursing would) and adjust the mare's feed. By adjusting her feed, I mean decrease it quite a bit for a short time to encourage her to dry up. Not knowing what you are currently feeding or if this mare is a hard keeper, easy keeper, etc. I can't make any recommendations on exactly how to decrease your feed, but I, personally, take a mare totally off of grain for a few days if they can handle it... helps them dry up faster and decreases your chances of mastitis. Of course, with some mares this is not an option... you just have to adjust for your particular mare. The idea is that they don't need enough grain to sustain themselves AND produce milk... just enough to sustain themselves!
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Bondama
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Postby Bondama » Thu Oct 27, 2005 7:37 am

Thanks for your reply, Roguelet. Diplomatic Pleasure (the mare) has been apart from her filly since Easter, so roughly 7-8 months. I don't know if the filly nursed up til that time as it is when I purchased her. I do discourage my child to not milk her, just because it's weird, but didn't think it was unhealthy for the mare or anything. I don't want to take her off her grain because, while she's not a hard keeper, she does work regularly, plus she's our dominant mare and would no doubt steal from the others! To avoid stealing, I could separate her, but I can see the potential for some unpleasantness by doing so. I already have to separate my slow eater so she can finish undisturbed! I am just glad to know that it's not an unheard of occurrence. I do plan to breed her around the first of the year, so I guess it won't make a great deal of difference. Thanks again for your input! :D

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Postby KKT » Thu Oct 27, 2005 1:25 pm

Another option is to milk the mare and store the milk in a soda bottle in the freezer. I did this after my mare lost her foal. I then notified my vet that I had mares milk. This can be sold for quite a bit if needed by another horse owner. I gave mine to a friend who had a mare that rejected her foal. Talk to your vet about it first though.