Mare with milk and small bag- but not covered?!

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amandaco2

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my 7 year old had the physio today and whilst she was doing stretches with her hind legs she noticed she is dripping milk!
shes only been out with my mares for the last 2 and bit years
they have had geldings next door to them but nothing i know thats entire......
can mares drip milk without being in foal?!
she does have a belly on her but not overly fat on neck, shoulder, bum.... and she has been very grumpy to girth the last month or so- but back etc all fine!
the milk is bright white and watery consitancy and her bag is a little bit full. its both teats......
shes never had this before.....
 
she is on the porkier side of good but i wouldnt say she is fat.... shes quite fit on her neck and bum, its just the belly really......
i thought it was a grass/gas belly as she was on loads of grass for about 5hrs a day and then in with little hay and ate most of her straw bed...
shes now out 20hrs a day on short grazing thats not over rich
she gets winergy low feed.
i will chat to the vet of course but is it common to get milk but no foal...?
 
My old TB mare used to be like this most summers, she wasn't particularly fat and she wasn't hormonal either, I think when the grass was very good, she just produced watery milk and had a swollen udder, it also happened to my friend's WB mare, who had previously had 3 foals. If you are worried speak to your vet.
 
thank god for that.....

the geldings shes been around , i wouldnt really want to sire any foals of mine....

although the physio did point out the belly sat more to one side of her- again a bit odd, esp with the grumpy girthing- there was nothing on her back to account for that.....

argh i need a vet really to confirm yes or no. otherwise i will be worrying!
darn horses, she must have thought things had been very quiet/ calm and it was time to panic her mother for a while....lol

i mean shes been on rich grass and fatter and never had any milk before but i guess thats horses- always keepin us on our toes!

on the good side physio v happy with her all over, just had slight tension in hamstring... :)
 
well she did have a foal as a 4 year old.

ive never heard of non pregnant mares having milk before...
the grazing shes had in the past 8 months has been unfertilised stuff thats not over rich (dont like rich grazing due to lami risk!)
 
I was washing my mares teats the other day and got a face full of milk yuck. I had a word with the guy who owns the stud and he said he's had mares that do this when in season ( which she is) especially if they have previously had a foal ( which she has). She didnt have any bag as such, but if deffo surprised me lol
 
hm shes not showing any in season signs really (she is VERY obvious when shes in season lol)

i guess only the vet appointment will tell!
just glad to hear it can happen in none pregnant mares.....
 
Yes, I would certainly get the vet. Not sure about horses but there are some types of cysts or tumours in women that can cause hormonal changes and lactation. If she is uneven, she could have some sort of cyst? They can get very large. Have you noticed any movement in her belly? If she is pregnant and producing milk then the foal would be visibly moving by now.
 
Two of my Shire mares have produced milk while barren. They have both had foals in the past. Just keep an eye on it. While mastitis is not common in mares, it can happen. Seek advice from your vet.
 
Happens in humans too.., in humans it's due to a (mostly harmless) pituitary tumour.., or hypothyroidism.., if it's the same in horses then if it's the tumour thing then it needs no treatment. -- any vets about??? Do horses get prolactinomas? Or hypothyroid for that matter???
 
We had two mares here that you would swear was in foal, had them less than a year so was poss they could of been covered, the biggest mare we saw movement and milk, smaller mare we thought not as far on, we got vet in who did internal and a scan, we were then told no foals, its what we were hoping for, still how could we all of been so wrong, vet said with them turned out 24/7 they had got overweight and there was lots of gas that looked like movement. would advise to get vet to check it would save so much time.
 
I was just going to mention that milk can be produced in Cushings horses/ponies too........ but then it's rare to find Cushing's in anything younger than around 12 years old, so would be unusual in a 7 year old.

How far apart are the tips of her teats?

With the 3 foals that I've bred, I knew that foaling was imminent when the teats became further and further apart. They were around 3.5 inches apart (on 13.3 to 15h Dales mares) on the night of foaling. Prior to that point, their bags looked reasonably full, but not full enough to really separate the two teats, if that makes sense.

Do let us know what the vet reckons.

Sarah
 
flintfootfilly said:
I was just going to mention that milk can be produced in Cushings horses/ponies too........ but then it's rare to find Cushing's in anything younger than around 12 years old, so would be unusual in a 7 year old.

How far apart are the tips of her teats?

With the 3 foals that I've bred, I knew that foaling was imminent when the teats became further and further apart. They were around 3.5 inches apart (on 13.3 to 15h Dales mares) on the night of foaling. Prior to that point, their bags looked reasonably full, but not full enough to really separate the two teats, if that makes sense.

Do let us know what the vet reckons.

Sarah
Click to expand...

Total aside really but we had a Sec D mare who had cushings at the age of 5. Her levels were so high that the vet came out as soon as he got the results and put her to sleep... it was a bizarre experience he basically didn't give us a choice but she was VERY VERY ILL...
 
One of my mares produces milk from one teat during summer. She is 15 years old, and is thought to have bred a foal when just a few years old in Ireland. I had the vet check for mastitis a few years ago but everything was in order, so it's just one of her strange characteristics! She certainly isn't overweight, and is fit and healthy so I just let her get on with it.
 
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