# Pregnant mare loseing weight?!?!?



## VintageMatch (Jul 23, 2009)

So I have a thoroughbred mare due june 25 she's a maiden and she'll be 8 at the end of april. So I'm getting a little worried, she put on a lot of weight when we bred her, which is weird because she's kind of a hard keeper, the past few weeks, I haven't really seen her because our barn flooded, so the horses have been outside so I haven't taken her blanket off. Today though the horses were inside and I took her blanket off to brush her and she's -really- skinny, like I cried when I saw her. I just don't understand how she could lose so much weight. she has hay almost constantly and may 1st she'll be moving to our other barn with grass pasture. I was looking at some oil to put on her grain, but I don't want her getting hot off it. Do you guys have any suggestions on what to give her till she gets to her grass? oh and she is on mare & foal grain. 

So long story short, anyone have safe weight gain suggestions? And anyone else heard of a broodmare losing weight so fast??

Please Help!!!


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## AlexS (Aug 9, 2010)

I think you should probably get the vet out to check her over.


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## Shalani (Jul 16, 2009)

Apart from getting the Vet to take a look , the best feed I have used for pregnant mares was Bio Mare .... not sure what country your in , but hopefully it's available to you . otherwise look at taylor made feeds for breeding horses .

Hope that helps


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## miniheart (Apr 18, 2011)

Yes, A vet is a great idea. But foals take a lot out of the mare and she may not be getting good enough quality of hay for that being her only food. I'm assuming the field was muddy but even still if she is a hard keeper to begin with and she's now pregnant, I'd be thinking she needs quality grain and better hay to sustain her and the pregnancy. I had a TB who was a hard keeper and we gave him beet pulp and senior feed but again, he was a gelding and not pregnant  

Definitely get a vet out because I've heard of mares absorbing the foal to sustain their own nutrition.


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## VintageMatch (Jul 23, 2009)

My riding instructor is going to check her teeth for me and as soon as our vet gets back I'm haveing a full check up done on her. I'm also going to the feed mill to look at their different grains/ supplements and oils to see what i can get for her. I have to make sure it doesn't make her hot. Thanks for the advice.


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## dee (Jul 30, 2009)

My mare did that. Suddenly dropped weight not long before she foaled. She looked HORRIBLE! (We went on vacation and the lady that was supposed to feed our horses...well, she took the money we paid her and skipped town.) The rest of our horses gained the weight back they lost within a month or so, but Dancer just kept losing. I thought something was seriously wrong. Vet said she just wasn't getting enough protein. 

We upped her protein by increasing the alfalfa pellets and adding a mare/foal feed. She gained a little weight while she was still nursing her filly, but not nearly enough.

We've finally pulled the filly off of her - about a month ago. We also started changing her feed about two weeks ago to a higher fat feed - until she gets where we want her to be.

She's really starting to look much better, finally! Now she needs more in the way of muscle development rather than just weight in general. Have to admit, she was a butterball when whe first got her.


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## Super Nova (Apr 27, 2010)

So how long ago did you check her under her blanket? A week, a month?

Is it possible she has lost the foal? 

What type of hay are you feeding? Maybe you need to up the quality of your hay.......I would consider supplementing her with alfalfa......I would be looking at feeding her some grain or grain supplement.....and from there you could add some oil.....you still have time to get some weight back on her before the foal is born.

Dalemma


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## Juna (Apr 4, 2010)

Yeah that^^^^


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## TrueColours (Apr 25, 2009)

Each mare is very very different and I have mostly TB mares here too

The Pearlescent mare is a tank. A complete and utter 16.2hh, WB built tank, and she will eat anything and everything put in front of her and maintain her weight I always have to remember that she is feeding a growing fetus as well, so as well as free choice 2nd and 3rd cut alfalfa mix hay, she gets 4 lbs a day of 16% Buckeye Growth formula for mares in foal, weanlings / yearlings and 2 lbs a day of the ration balancer Buckeye Alfa Grow N Win

When she is not in foal or lactating she gets cut down to about 3 lbs a day in total

My Puchi Trap mare has always been a hard keeper. Where I had her before they fed ShurGain and at 12-14 lbs a day of 14-16% broodmare feed, plus free choice hay, she looked utterly awful and gaunt even leading up to foaling. Plus she was a picky eater and there was SO much grain in her bucket, she was totally backing off it, sighing, looking at it like it was poison and standing in the corner glaring at her bucket.

I now have her on Buckeye as well now that we have our own place, and not pregnant, she is getting 2 lbs a day of Grow N Win and 4 lbs a day of Buckeye Trifecta which is a 14% fat product that really packs the weight on them. When she is in foal, she gets Growth added in there as well and probably a total of 8-10 lbs a day of grain and I find with her, I absolutely HAVE to give her that much or you can see ribs and hip bones sticking out. She still - to this day - is a very picky and slow eater and will take all night long to finish her dinner - she just picks at it very very slowly ...

Hope that helps a bit - you really wont get the broodmares "hot" at all - the babies are taking so much nutrition from them, the feed is going more to baby than it is to them at this point ...

Good luck with her!


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## VintageMatch (Jul 23, 2009)

We've found out that her teeth are sharp, we didn't notice because she has a constant supply of hay outside and so if she leaves some inside, we thought it was because she's full. Since she so far along in her pregnancy we can't sedate her to have them done. My instructors making her grain mush so that she can eat it. I got her a grain called athlete, It was the highest fat content my feed mill had, so she's getting that mixed with her mare and foal grain(don't remember what it's called) She is a very picky eater so my instructor doesn't want to put oil on her food because she might not eat it. she gets alfalfa hay all the time. It's been a while, like 3 weeks, and I feel really bad, so I will be keeping a closer eye on her and checking her all the time. Next weekend she'll be moving and will have grass so hopefully she'll pack on the pounds before baby comes. Thanks for the advice everyone I'll keep you posted!! PS True colours farm I love you horses, my friend used to own a cremello tb stallion.


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