Help my mare has milk & lots of it

[llewyn]

I bought my mare in Jan, I bought her thinking that she was empty. But for the past week she has been producing milk. Could she be in foal or do some mares sometimes do this. Ive never seen it happen before. Her Milk veins are huge & it looks quite uncomfortable. I got the vet out & at first he said it was mastitis, but she has milk coming out both halves. its not thick smelly milk. Its been like this for a week & the seems to have no explanation he is usually a fab vet.

 

[squiff]

Definately get a vet out again, even if it is another vet. If she is in foal (which I doubt) she shouyldn't have sun milk for this long. A few days maybe and even that's bad. She may be doing what my old mare is, who had a foal 3 years ago! However, mine doesn't have much. My vet took bloods a few weeks ago to make sure it's not cushings disease in that she may have problems with her insulin levels.

Either way get a vet out sooner rather than later or it will develop into mastitis.

 

[llewyn]

He's coming back out tomorrow, he wanted to scan her but im not a fan of scanning, especially coz she's such a long mare. He's gonna take bloods instead. fink she had a foal about 2 years ago. The people i bought her off are avoiding my emails & calls. I just wanted to find out if she had done this before, but think they must think im gonna have a moan which im not coz i cant fault the mare & plus Iknow they had 3 stallions at their yard so wanted to know if they had somhow manged to get to each other

 

[StrawberryFish]

My mum's mare had her last foal when she was 6 - we then bought her - she is now 18 and we can still milk her.
She is a purebred dales and the vet has said there is nothing wrong with her - it's just her.

 

[Worried1]

My friends mare is the same - she is in her mid 20s and can still be milked. However it doesn't seem to cause her any distress so it might be worth speaking to the vet.

 

[llewyn]

Im just worried as ive always had geldings, its the first time ive had a mare & a friesian. Just wanted to get as many opinions as poss coz they are all helpful. I thought maybe it was something that happens to her every spring time.

 

[llewyn]

he is back out tomorrow. he said she should have dried up by now, but her milk veins are huge. You can grab hold of them & they go towards her front legs. they are huge. & she got a big bag

 

[Tia]

I'd have her checked to see whether she is in-foal or not.

 

[StrawberryFish]

It could well be - definitely best to get it checked out though.

 

[llewyn]

he'll be coming out again to see her later. I'll let you all know if she is in foal

 

[jessica_daunted]

if the people you bought her off are ignoring your calls etc then maybe she is pregnant either that or having a phantom pregnancy as mine did several years ago. If the milk is ok why not try getting hold of a number for a surrogate mother agency and see if that does the trick she can support a young foal in its hour of need and maybe sort out the situation of milk and no foal.
just a suggestion
Jess

 

[JGKJ]

Any news yet on your mare? The fact her previous owners are avoiding your calls etc does sort of suggest they may well have something to hide!

 

[llewyn]

Vet didnt turn up very miffed off with him. I got in touch with margje's ex owners & they said they covered her & had her scanned but she scanned not in foal. Plus you wont believe this they said they stabled her with a stallion for a few days!!! WHY?!?
When i went to see her before i bought her they had 3 stallions there. At least they were all friesian stallions so if she is in foal so wont be bad. Did fink about trying to find an orphan foal coz she got alot of milk going to waste. We got alot of lambs at the mo with no mummies but dont fink she wud like a baby lamb! ha