Idiopathic lactation in mare - treatment options?

[PetalPower]

I have a 12 year old ISH mare who has had idiopathic lactation for 14 months. She has never been covered nor previously had a foal. It is not just an occasional drip, it is full on leakage some of the time and a slow drip the rest of the time. I cannot recall her having a 'dry' day during this period of time.

She has been investigated by the veterinary hospital - she had had every blood test possible and her ovaries/uterus scanned with no abnormalities found. I was advised by the vets to work her as normal and ignore the lactation.

BUT - today she has developed quite a nasty mastitis. Vet has been and stripped bag, injected with antibiotics and painkillers and left oral ABs and painkillers to be continued.

I'd love to know if anyone else has had this problem lasting quite this long and what if anything cured it? The vet did mention Galastop but advised against it due to the prohibitive cost and unlikelihood of success (horse was covered by insurance). We did agree a trial of Prascend which had no effect on the lactation. The mare does not have PPID so the Prascend was purely to try and switch off the lactation.

I would very much appreciate any thoughts as I really would like to do what is best by this lovely mare.

TIA.

 

[MidChristmasCrisis]

My 23 year old has lactated for 3 years with no ill effect and vets not concerned so I’m not. The farrier gets dripped on sometimes but he’s very understanding ??

 

[Brownmare]

Is there clover in her grazing? One of mine bagged up whenever she moved onto a field where there was clover. She is back to normal now on a clover free field but at the time I did get advice from Equinaturals on some herbs I could give to help so it might be worth contacting them.

 

[PetalPower]

No, there's no clover in her grazing and she has been on a couple of different fields since it began. I'm not so worried about the lactation as the mastitis as I'm concerned it will happen again if the milk doesn't dry up. I'll definitely look into Equinaturals to see if they can offer a more natural solution. The vet's final option which is, in their words, prohibitively expensive is the Galastop but I'm wondering if it might be worth at least trying?

 

[Caol Ila]

Is she near any foals/pregnant mares?

When my mare and her foal moved into their summer field, an old Shetland mare in the neighboring field started lactating and like yours, she got mastitis. Those horses could talk over the fence with my horses. It was a long fenceline. The vet believed that my mare with foal-at-foot triggered this mare. Eventually, the YO moved the old Shetland into a different field, not in sight of the foal, and that seemed to fix it.

 

[tristar]

I have a 12 year old ISH mare who has had idiopathic lactation for 14 months. She has never been covered nor previously had a foal. It is not just an occasional drip, it is full on leakage some of the time and a slow drip the rest of the time. I cannot recall her having a 'dry' day during this period of time.

She has been investigated by the veterinary hospital - she had had every blood test possible and her ovaries/uterus scanned with no abnormalities found. I was advised by the vets to work her as normal and ignore the lactation.

BUT - today she has developed quite a nasty mastitis. Vet has been and stripped bag, injected with antibiotics and painkillers and left oral ABs and painkillers to be continued.

I'd love to know if anyone else has had this problem lasting quite this long and what if anything cured it? The vet did mention Galastop but advised against it due to the prohibitive cost and unlikelihood of success (horse was covered by insurance). We did agree a trial of Prascend which had no effect on the lactation. The mare does not have PPID so the Prascend was purely to try and switch off the lactation.

I would very much appreciate any thoughts as I really would like to do what is best by this lovely mare.

TIA.

surely the presence of certain hormones is necessary for this to happen

wondering if having a foal would make any difference upon weaning

 

[PetalPower]

surely the presence of certain hormones is necessary for this to happen

wondering if having a foal would make any difference upon weaning

She's had all of the blood tests and they have all come back normal. I agree that there must be an imbalance somewhere though!

Is she near any foals/pregnant mares?

Nope, she's never been near either of these. I'm flummoxed. She had a sample taken of the milk from the infected teat and despite it being smelly, lumpy and disgusting it grew no bacteria either! It has responded well to the antibiotics though and is back down to the size it was prior to infection. Interestingly she had no milk on either teat tonight, I wonder how long it will last!