The ulcer meds will do no harm and may be just what will do the trick. as I was using it as a preventative I think we used it for the first week.
I also would not worry about the playmate for all the reason you expressed-sometimes there is disparity between the two and one gets the worse of it. Another concern when faced with the same issue was shipping in a baby that may bring snots, germs and complications to an already stressed baby.
Good luck
So sorry for the loss of your mare!! I went thru this in 2011. My colt lost his mom when he was 7 weeks old. I put the foal lac pellets in with a little senior equine grain. (He had been snacking on a little of his mom’s food and seemed ok with this.) He was fed that 3x per day. (He would not do the liquid milk in a bucket ever!!) He also had free choice alfalfa, grass and oat hay. It was a LONG process and he was also put on ulcer meds…he was very depressed for weeks; had horses on all sides for company, but no one in with him. He was put in with another horse when he was 5 months old, and has done fine since. He is now 20 months old, healthy, has great manners, and is very well adjusted. I hope everything turns out well for you and your baby!
So sorry you lost your mare.
Daatje lost her dam when she was 28 days old. She was looking pretty unthrifty for a while afterwards. Once I discovered she was only being fed grain and hay I insisted she be on Foal Lac, both as milk (bottle fed) and as pellets.
Once on that, she started looking much better and her condition really picked up.
She’ll be 12 years old in February of next year and matured to 15.3 hands, the same height as her dam.
Good luck with your little orphan, hope things get sorted out for you both.
the loss of her dam has absolutely flattened her
Sorry for your loss. I strongly agree with giving ulcer meds. It cannot not hurt, and depression is a sign of ulcers.
[QUOTE=bingbingbing;6712703]
the loss of her dam has absolutely flattened her
Sorry for your loss. I strongly agree with giving ulcer meds. It cannot not hurt, and depression is a sign of ulcers.[/QUOTE]
The orphans are challenging…we had an orphaned baby two summers ago and he did really well with a pony mare…
As an update. Waiting for ulcerguard to arrive but have started on pro-bios. I have also started her on Equine JR (up to 1 tbsp so far <sigh>) and I have ordered a product called APF on the recommendation of a fellow CoTH’er.
I’ve also been keeping an eye out on Craigslist for a suitable companion. There was an aged mini-pony this morning but one of the problems with ponies in general is that free choice hay isn’t a wise move. But I live in hope I’ll win the foal raffle 
You could try the local livestock auction. Last time I needed a companion for a foal, I bought a stunted yearling for $60. There are lots of, way too many, “breeders” out there that wean babies too early and dump them, or them and their mothers. Especially in a year like this when hay prices are high.
My $60 yearling was a pure bred arab. I sold him a year later for $750. He was smaller than my warmblood foal. And of course he was in quarentine for a week - and was dewormed and vacinated BEFORE I introdued him to his new BFF
You might also consider a brood mare that someone is dumping. I have a couple of old mares that will happily mother any baby. Trickier to evaluate mothering instinct if your buying at an auction, but at the current market price for these horses your not out a lot of money.
Jingling that things looks up soon…
I’ve had really good luck with babies/ weanlings giving Mylanta (or generic liquid antacid) via syringe. Sometimes it actually seems to work quicker than Gastroguard as far as getting them eating again. I usually do 60 ccs 2-3 times a day for a couple of days. The orphans we’ve had have not been remotely stunted-- in fact the last one we had, a racebred TB, lost his mom at 3 weeks and ended up 17 hands anyway.
Humm. I would try syringing doses of Rejuvenaid into her. If she’s not eating much solids, she definitely won’t eat this willingly, but the rejuvenaid is liquid vitamins and minerals and is formulated specifically for pre-weaning age foals, so she’s right in that age-group and she needs the nutrition. You know it’s doing something good when they start getting feisty again. Otherwise, I second the idea of trying to get her to nurse off an Igloo and to try different brands of equine milk replacer.
You start by bottle training them and if you have a mare that is still lactating you can milk the mare (you can induce any mare to lactation pharmaceutically). This teaches your orphan that the bottle tastes like mommy’s milk and it is more appealing to them. Then, you start introducing the Igloo with as much of the mare’s milk in it at a time, and then start mixing a bit of replacer in with the mare’s milk, starting small, 90% mare milk to 10% replacer (you’re introducing a new taste here) and then gradually raise it to 50/50 when the foal is getting vigorous and enthusiastic on the Igloo, and then gradually increase it to 75% replacer to 25% mare milk. It’s a bit of work at first, but I think we need to take a step backwards and treat this foal as if she were still about 6 weeks, because as you say and have noticed, this loss has really flattened her. This might be the only way you can perk her up. Young babies need not only the nutrients in mare milk, but also the fat, calories, and protein for proper growth. She’s only going to get this from milk until she can do more than just nibble on solids.
And the idea about yogurt - it’s sounds unbelievable, but it’s true, they do like strawberry yogurt, sometimes some prefer raspberry or blueberry better.
The EZ Milker makes milking a mare as sweet and easy as banana cream pie.
Otherwise, jingles and sorry for your loss.
I have raised a few orphans with good success. Each time I bought a dairy goat… closest milk to mamas. and made sure of lots of probiotics… I have done it both by themselves and with another foal. Definitely the ones that had a friend did better…
Good luck. I Would go with maybe a natural ulcer med, like stomach soother, which is papaya… or in Canada we have a probiotic called Equine Choice… I use it on all my foals now before I wean them and for at least a month after. I also give to them a few days before and after deworming and vaccinations… It may be overkill. but I have been super lucky in healthy happy babies.
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