I have a mare that is about 345 days along. I checked her out this morning and she had some wax, but still no milk. She maybe got slightly bigger bags overnight, but definitely no milk like all my other mares have had. She is also holding her tail up slightly. Wish I had a pic to post, but her bags are just a little puffy compared to what they normally are. She has not been on any fescue. She was sick this summer back in June and that caused her to lose some weight. She had an elevated temp and went off her feed for about a week. A few of my horses did this and recovered fine within a week or 2. Vet never figured out what it was. She has gained her weight back and is on 12lbs of Strategy H.E. a day, along with free choice hay and grass. I have had her on a mare supplement and a fat supplement.
So what to do? Do I wait and see if she ends up producing some milk? Or have the vet give her a shot now to produce milk or wait until she foals to give the shot? My regular vet didn’t seemed to concerned about it, but I am. I just don’t want to jump the gun and give her a shot when its not necessary, but I have never had to deal with this and wondering when everyone actually does resort to giving their mares a shot. I do realize that if given the shot she won’t produce enough colostrum.
