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  Discussion on Diarrhea caused by mare's milk?
Author Message
Member:
Morg1

Posted on Tuesday, Jun 13, 2006 - 10:48 pm:

Hi all,

I have a paint filly born May 28th. Within 12 hours of birth she developed diarrhea. The vet advised taking the mare off her grain (Strategy) and switching from the alfalfa I was giving her to grass hay. Within a couple of days of doing that the filly's diarrhea was gone. She had normal stool at 4 days. Starting on day 5 I began to gradually build the mare back up on the grain. On day 10 the mare was still only getting about 2 1/2 pounds of strategy per day, and I started noticing the foal's stools getting softer again. By day 14 the mare was up to about 5 pounds per day of strategy and the filly had very runny diarrhea. The vet recommended that I take the mare off of grain again (apparently he thinks the mare's milk is just too rich or she's producing too much). I complained that the grass hay that I have been giving the mare was poor quality (very mature), and I didn't feel that was giving her the nutrition that she needed. He recommended that I feed her 2 pounds of oats per day. I decided to add a supplement to that (Born to Win) because I didn't feel that the hay and oats would give her the vitamins and minerals that she needed. Within 2 days the filly's diarrhea starting firming up, but yesterday the mare received the 2 pounds of oats and today the filly's diarrhea is back. It's not as bad as it was about 4 days ago, but it is worse than it was yesterday. It is looking like I can't feed the mare any grain without the filly getting diarrhea. The mare has lost some weight (you can just barely see her ribs), so I would love to find something that she can have that won't bother the filly. Any ideas? I'm waiting on input from a equine nutritionist, but would like some ideas from everyone here at HA.

Oh yeah, the filly has been a ball of energy through all of this and growing like a weed.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Jun 14, 2006 - 7:20 am:

If the diagnosis is correct, the milk provides too much nutrition > it is not all absorbed > the result being an osmotic diarrhea, the loose stools are not the only concern. Over nutrition and too rapid growth is the number one cause of developmental orthopedic problems. There should be no trouble supplementing vitamins although we suggest you follow our recommendations in the vitamin article and there is no need to supplement most minerals. Your main concerns with a lactation mare or oats and stemmy hay are energy, protein, calcium, and phosphorus. Almost all of these are provided in abundance by the alfalfa.

I would try to balance the diet this way: Return to the oats and grass hay till everything settles down. Start with small amounts of alfalfa and then build up slowly till you run into problems then back down slowly. If at that point the mare is still rapidly loosing weight, try adding back in vegetable oil. Remember some weight loss is normal the first two months of lactation.
DrO
Member:
Morg1

Posted on Wednesday, Jun 14, 2006 - 9:07 am:

Thanks DrO, I will try that.
Member:
Morg1

Posted on Thursday, Jun 29, 2006 - 3:14 pm:

I just wanted to update you on my foal's progress. She continued the diarrhea for over a week after I posted here. I started giving her ProBios for 6 days, and that didn't help. Meanwhile, I was increasing the mare's feed and last Friday I started giving her Kaopectate (adult dose) twice a day for 3 days. Her stool was normal within 12 hours of starting the Kaopectate, but I continued to give her some until Monday morning (her last dose). Her diarrhea has not come back and the mare is getting plenty of feed. I've worked her up to 6 lbs./day of grain, and 4 flakes of alfalfa hay/day. She also is getting some of the stemmy grass hay and 4 hours of pasture/day. She is currently kept in a large dry lot for most of the day.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, Jun 30, 2006 - 6:22 am:

Thank you Karen, while there are ingredients in Kaopectate that do help with diarrhea I want you to consider that the use of the product was coincidental with resolution of the diarrhea. Almost all foals get diarrhea and almost all foals get over it without Kao. If the Kao had not worked (and it often does not) you would have moved on to something else and if it had stopped then, you would guess that was the cause. I just am trying to get you to think critically about what is happening.
DrO
Member:
Morg1

Posted on Friday, Jun 30, 2006 - 9:27 am:

Oh yes, I'd already thought of the fact that it was a big coincidence. I just wanted to share what I went through. I don't really care what worked and what didn't I'm just thrilled to know that it is gone. Thanks, Karen
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