Stripping/Milking?

_daisy_

_daisy_

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Ebi and Willow have been seperated now for over 5 weeks. I have left her bag alone but carried on checking it over daily to make sure there is going to be no recurring mastitis. Everything has been ok(ish) ever since. Shes had the odd drip or so but nothing major, some slight heat and swelling but has gone as soon as it came.
Last night she was right at the top of the field so came full pelt gallop down to the gate for her tea (stupid horse! she knows what time tea is and is normally waiting by the gate) When she arrived at the bucket I noticed fluid dripping off her legs. So armed with baby wipes I started to clean her up. She had milk all the way under her belly etc. So felt her bag and had a squeeze. Quite a bit of milk came out. So decided to take as much off her as I could until it stopped coming out.

Should I be doing this or will it stimulate her to produce more? Is there anything I can feed her to stop her milking? Anybody else had this? Im worried that when Willow does come home which is in about 3 weeks time she will start feeding again and Ebi will let her.
Now it looks like my plan B is going to have to take effect where Ebi goes elsewhere for grazing till she completely stops milking?
 
Why are you feeding her when she's being weaned? That is probably the answer.
You should have cut out ALL hard feed, just given hay if absolutely necessary and put her on the poorest grazing possible where she has to keep moving to find anything and to keep the bag down; it doesn't need the stimulant of food at this stage. Yes, she would possibly lose a little weight over those weeks (look at the pic's of B by SN to get some idea) but it does dry them up properly, you are not being cruel and it's amazing how quickly they regain it when their milk machine has stopped.
Now that you have stripped her out I would be inclined to leave bag well alone but you have almost put yourself back to the beginning by doing that and feeding her; sorry to be so blunt. I would certainly be keeping filly away for a bit longer just in case.
 
when my mare went away after weaning we stoped all hard feed it didnt take long and as the other people say they do drop weight but soon put it on dont worry it will be ok..goodluck
 
MFH - dont worry about being blunt. She only gets a handful or so of alfalfa or happy hoof so she can have her Formula 4 Feet. If I dont feed her she pesters my mums old pony who is still being fed. The field she is in is about 6acres and she does do a lot of walking around to find the grass. They had adlib hay in a feeder also. They arent bothered with the hay now. Im not bothered about her loosing weight, as like you said she would regain it when she has stopped milking.

Would exercising her help at all?

Just to say her bag is very small and has only got milk in 1 side. Her other side went pretty much gone back to normal size, a few months after Willow was born (due to the mastitis) and the other side is slightly a bit bigger than this.
I checked her bag over last night - there didnt seem to be anything coming out or looked as though it had come out. I really hope i havent taken her bag to step one.

Dont know whether I will be able to keep Willow away any longer. Mums paying £150p/w for her to be away at the minute. I may see if they can hold onto her but at a cheaper rate, but does depend on if theyve got any more horses coming in. If not ill see if they will take Ebi for me on grass livery.
 
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