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  Discussion on Diarrhea caused by mare's milk
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Member:
indigo

Posted on Friday, May 2, 2008 - 11:45 pm:

Not sure this is the right spot to post this, so I will apologize in advance if I'm in the wrong section.

I have a two and a half week old filly who has been suffering from mild to severe diarrhea since a few days of age. She is otherwise healthy, so I am fairly sure the diarrhea is being caused by the richness of the mare's milk. This mare always milks like a cow. To compound the problem, she has myofascial paralysis on one side of her face, and has, for the past couple months, pretty much stopped eating hay and grass. She will attempt to eat hay, but usually just ends up spitting it back out.

I won't be re-breeding this mare because her condition has worsened greatly over the past 4-6 months, but I am now in the position of having a young foal on a mare that cannot eat much roughage. I have had the mare on a combination of Strategy, alfalfa pellets, beet pulp and a small amt of vegetable oil. I am sure this is not a good combination for the foal, but this diet was the only one I found kept the mare in decent body condition during her last few months of pregnancy. The foal's diarrhea comes and goes, but it seems that for the past few days it has been getting much worse. However, the foal still seems to be feeling ok, no fever etc.

I would really like some suggestions of additions/modifications that I can make to this mare's diet that will allow her to maintain decent body condition while at the same time not be so rich as to cause diarrhea in the foal. I have eliminated the oil, and starting tomorrow will begin switching out some the Strategy with oats. I was also thinking of adding a little rice bran for fat (will that cause diarrhea?)

Do you have any other diet modification suggestions for this type of situation?

Thanks much!
CC
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, May 3, 2008 - 7:46 am:

Hello CC,
Is there a reason you do not think you are having trouble with foal heat diarrhea? While most foals go through this problems with excessive milk production are quite uncommon and often very conjectural rather than firmly diagnosed. For more see Diseases of Horses » Colic, Diarrhea, GI Tract » Diarrhea in Horses » Foal Heat Diarrhea.
DrO
Member:
indigo

Posted on Saturday, May 3, 2008 - 11:21 am:

Hi Dr. O,

I guess that's possible, but this filly has pretty much had diarrhea since birth and she's 19 days old today. Is it normal for them to have foal heat scours for 19 days? I haven't had a TON of foals, but have had 2-3 each year for the past 15 years, and I've never had one that has been this loose for so long. She has had periods where it was firmer than it is right now (which last night was pretty much water, I gave her Deliver 3x last night and this morning it is somewhat better but still very runny) but she has been quite loose since birth.

Thanks!
Charity
Member:
ekaufman

Posted on Saturday, May 3, 2008 - 3:48 pm:

Hi Charity,

Sounds difficult. How are the foal's vital signs? Has her temp. been elevated? Mine sometimes show some diarrhea around foal heat, but I've never seen anything persistent. What is your de-worming program like for your mare and other horses? What kind of turnout or stalling setup do you have? Does anyone else have any symptoms of illness?

Good luck with this. Baby problems are always especially troubling.

FWIW, you might try soaking hay pellets or even crushed hay cubes for your mare, if you're trying to get more forage into her....
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Sunday, May 4, 2008 - 9:28 am:

I got it CC, I missed the reference to the "first few days" in the first post. It could be the worsening is foal heat on top of the other problem. Hmmm....it is more consistent with the possiblility of too much or too rich a milk. We recommend a examination of the foal and stools by your veterinarian. To test/treat the excessive milk theory cut out the alfalfa pellets, beet pulp and vegetable oiland replace them with a equivalent amout of grass hay that she is adapted to and see if that makes a difference in a few days. If so you can always start her back on the alfalfa slowly.
DrO
Member:
erika

Posted on Monday, May 5, 2008 - 8:36 am:

Charity, I have used Dengie Hi-Fi for my horse that couldn't eat regular hay. It is finely chopped so those with poor chewing can sometimes handle it.

There are other brands of chopped forage, too. Ask your feed store. Watch for the molasses content though if you are trying to keep the calories down. Some have more than others, and you can find brands that don't add it.

Dr. O, could she try beet pulp? Or is that as high calorie as alfalfa?

Good luck, Charity. I hope you'll keep us posted about how they are doing.
Erika
Member:
indigo

Posted on Monday, May 5, 2008 - 11:23 pm:

Thanks everyone for your advice!

After two days of administering Deliver, the foal has FINALLY firmed up. I think it might be coincidental, as I also totally eliminated the oil, and I'm thinking that might have been the culprit.

Would still appreciate any diet suggestions-

As mentioned, I am already feeding the mare a combo of beet pulp, alfalfa pellets and Strategy. As of this past weekend, I decreased the Strategy and added some oats. However, the mare is rapidly losing weight so I'm not sure this is sufficient. She is NOT able to consume any hay... anything stemmy she can't chew, but she can eat pellets fairly well. She is on good grass most of the day, but she doesn't seem to ingest much, she rips the grass out of the ground but most of it falls out of her mouth.

I checked with the three feed stores in my area and none carry any bagged or cubed hay, so my only forage options are alfalfa pellets and beet pulp.

I am currently feeding the mare twice per day:

3 lbs Strategy
3 lbs Oats
4 lbs Alfalfa Pellets
3 lbs Beet Pulp (dry weight)

This is 13 lbs 2x/day, so 26 lbs total per day. I'm a bit hesitant to increase this, for fear of colicing or foundering her, but since she's losing weight it seems that some type of diet modification is necessary. This is a fairly large mare, 16 hands and 1300 pounds at "normal" weight. I would guess she's 1000 pounds right now, with a body score of 3. Prior to foaling I would have rated her a 4- it was a struggle to keep her weight up while pregnant as well, but the weight loss has accelerated since she foaled.

(I'm guessing this post might need to be moved to another area?)

Thanks!
CC
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 - 6:23 am:

CC what is Deliver 3X? I am not familiar with the product nor does it show in a fast Google search.

I would increase the roughage parts of the diet first so increasing the beet pulp gets my vote. However feeding both BP and alfalfa will badly unbalance calcium and phosphorous. You need to also supplement with some bran as per the instructions in the article Horse Care » Equine Nutrition, Horse Feeds, Feeding » Beet Pulp.
DrO
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