Care of mare after her foal is weaned

[ponynut]

Both are doing fine. Foal is eating Ok and Mum is back happily with the herd. Her food is being cut down gradually and is slowly getting back to work. My majorworry is her milk as she is very heavy still. Will it dry up on its own and how do I recognise mastitis? She had it after giving birth and was on antibiotics.
Any advice greafully received!

[Pixie]

Where I used to work we had a similar experience with a mare and we were told to actually milk the mare twice a day as you would a cow! (by hand). This really worked and we got a lot of milk off her, it took a good 10-15 minutes twice daily, but it seemed such a shame to waste it all! After a couple of weeks she dried up and stopped producing milk. Hope it helps!

[ponynut]

Thanks Pixie- I will try milking her- will be feeling how much foalie would love to be slurping it back.

[Tess J]

When we weaned our foal it took quite a while for the milk to dry up and I was starting to get worried so spoke to our vet. He said to cut down on feed if possible, especially concentrates. If you were to get problems with mastitis the mare would become very sore and quickly become down in herself. Our vet said not to take off any milk unless the mare was very full and hard. If you do take milk off he said not to take too much as the more you take the more the mare will produce as her system will still think that it is needed for the foal. Hope everything works out.

[ponynut]

Tarot is much less heavy underneath but I have had no chance to milk her so she must be doing OK. She is so happy to be back with her pals and to be going out for very short hacks! I have cut her concentrates down by two-thirds now giving her less than a pound a day (she gets that because she lives out 24/7 )

Thanks for your help!

[intouch]

The best way to prevent overproduction of milk is to allow the foal one more feed, between 12 and 24 hours after the last one. This will empty the udder out and it will not refill to hard again.
This is a little known fact and most vets will tell you not to take anything off, but in a previous life I worked as a Lactation Consultant and proved the success of this method over and over, in spite of the protests of irate midwives.
Ive proved it with my own mares too, although admittedly I have used natural weaning at around a year old, when most mums are only too gald to see the back of their youngsters, and the foals have formed attachments with other horses.