Hi, I was wondering if you guys could give suggestions to add to mare’s diet to get her to produce more milk?
I have an 8 day old foal that needs more.
We started Domperidone a few days ago we are on our second tube.
The foal is energetic and nursing, but has tacky gums, and his poop is pretty hard and sticky and I’ve seen him drinking water.
Definitely not how I would like it.
I heard Cocoa helps but hesitate because my vet hasn’t heard of it helping.
I started feeding a milk supplement to help. His poop is slightly better today.
Neither are running a temp.
Anyone have suggestions?
what does your vet say? Equidone is the go-to, and can take several days to really kick in.
What’s the mare’s current diet?
Are you monitoring the foal’s weight? It doesn’t need to be a scale necessarily. A weight tape, while probably not terribly accurate at providing his actual weight at this age, is still helpful in tracking changes. Even just a plain tape measure wrapped around his barrel would give you some data in that respect.
I do not know off the top of my head of anything other than domperidone that has any real evidence of efficacy. As JB indicated, a look at the mare’s total diet to ensure she’s getting ample nutrition is something that’s good to rule out.
If you and your vet are sure that the mare isn’t producing sufficient milk, then I would look into obtaining a quality milk replacer for the foal as quickly as possible.
Best of luck to you! Babies are so fragile at this age.
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Another thought - what points to the mare not producing enough milk, vs the foal not drinking enough? How often is he nursing, and how long each time?
The tackiness does point to some dehydration (how’s the skin pinch test?), but not necessarily that it’s the mare’s fault.
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Hi, this is a med pony mare.
mare is eating:
1 1/2 qts Triple Crown Growth 2 x day
1 qt alfalfa pellets 2 x day
1 qt Unbeetable forage pellets 2 x day
Unlimited Timothy hay.
Foal nurses 4-5 times per hour for about 1 1/2 - 2 mins each time. I’ve also see. Him go and check and then walk away.
I actually witness him drinking water 2-3 times per day and who knows how many I miss.
I don’t know it’s the mare but it seems the most likely but maybe it’s not. What could be the problem with him?
Skin pinch is so so. Not horribly scary but it does stand up for longer than I would like.
Foal weight looks good. Is growing and ribs are almost gone. He’s definitely gaining. I wouldn’t worry except for the tacky mouth, water drinking and firm poop.
7x an hour is pretty typical, and around 30 seconds each time is typical. So, 4-5 times an hour is less than ideal, and 1.5-2 minutes each time would seem to indicate he’s trying to get more milk
I would keep supplementing his milk, and hope the equidone starts kicking in in the next day or 2
It’s also worth having his mouth checked to make sure there aren’t any abnormalities, AND to consider the possibility of ulcers. Do you ever see him lying on or on-ish his back?
They get their 10 day re check on Fri so I’ll have them look at his mouth. They did a newborn exam on him when they did his IGG and didn’t say anything.
After he nurses, he lays down and takes a nap like a baby with a full belly would do. The 4-5 times is only the times that he actually nurses. I’m not counting the times that he checks and then walks away after about 10 sec or so. If you count those, it’s probably 6-7 or so.
When he sleeps it’s usually flat out on his side or sternal.
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Also, he’s on a multi species formula because I couldn’t find anything else.
I ordered Mares match from chewy but forgot that it has an expiration date. I called but they couldn’t tell me the date.
So, if it comes and it’s out of date, I’m not going to use it.
One local feed store has Foals First but I’ve never used it. Is that comparable?
