Do you use a dry mare therapy when weaning?

[glenruby]

As the title says really? Just wondering how many of you use preventative methods against mastitis when weaning and if so what products do you use? Do you follow the same routine as is used in most dairy farms or do you leave them au natural?
Also if your mare has had mastitis previously what treatment did you use and was it successful?

 

[Maesfen]

Completely natural drying process as in, foal is left at home, mare is taken away to poorish pasture where she will have to walk about a lot to forage.
I also cut down on feed for a fortnight beforehand from a stud mix (and plenty of it which the foal will share too) to a handful of a basic (Bailey's Economy Mix in fact) for the mare while the foal still gets some stud mix until for a couple of days before weaning, the mare won't be getting anything other than grass to give the chance for the milk to dry up and the foal to get used to short rations of it. For the six weeks while the mare is away, she will not get extra feed at all; she needs to be kept basically hungry so she will dry off without any problems. It's one of those times when you really need to be harsh (no feed at all) to be kind (no mastitis) and it has always worked for me for over 2o years. When she comes back you can gradually introduce a very small feed again, you don't want her to balloon and risk coming back into milk again. Other people will have other ways!

 

[Tia]

I've never had a mare with mastitis. I always naturally wean so this tends to lower the risk of mastitis occurring.

 

[magic104]

I wean gradually & not before 6mths so never had a problem.

 

[amandaco2]

i gradually weaned at 9months(started at 7months completely off by 9.5months) and mare was fine.foal didnt get upset or drop any weight, nor did mare.

 

[TURBOBERT]

Im sure that is the answer. Nothing sudden. Leave full wening until about 8/9 months when is comes naturally. Meantime start taking mare away for an hour or two eg to ride.