Question for you about one of my mares...

[TheCaseFamily00]

That's great news

.Great heads up members

.

 

[shelly]

Wonderful news Jill...I'm glad she and the foal are ok!!!!

Just one more thing to watch for with our expecting mommas!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

So glad to hear good news! You have had a good share of excitement in just a few short months.

 

[Becky]

I'm just checking in and am so glad to hear the good news!! Glad you got the vet out when you did and she treated your mare accordingly.

Whew! Now, hopefully, you can concentrate on a healthy new foal soon. Is there any way you can get a heated bucket to her?

 

[Bunnylady]

Kudos to you for noticing that your girl was "off," and getting her seen to!! The signs of Hypocalcemia (sometimes called "Milk Fever," even though the afflicted animals don't have fevers) can be rather subtle at times. Any time I hear lethargic, stiff- or weak-legged, and muscle spasms in a pregnant/nursing animal, I'm gonna be suspicious. You spotted it before it got nasty, here's hoping that the rest is smooth sailing!

 

[REO]

I'm SO happy she's feeling better Julie! I know how scared you were. (So was I)

Thank you for the email!

 

[WeeOkie]

I'm just reading this, and am so glad that the outcome was so good for your mare. Wow, these forum people are sure knowledgable, and so glad you got the heads up. I must say after all these years, I've never heard of this. You've educated myself and others today. Thanks.

Rita

 

[mizbeth]

Gosh I have never heard of this either. SO glad I read this post. Now I'm thinking if I have ever had one before that did this? So far, I don't think so...........

Yes, I love this forum too and have learned so much from it over the years. Thanks so much for sharing.

B

 

[cretahillsgal]

Hey guys! Image is still doing good! She ate her feed this morning. Normally she is nickering and pacing until I get her feed to her, but this morning she didn't seem interested until I gave it to her. But she DID eat it so that is a good thing.

She HATES the paste. Vet told me to mix in in her feed if she will eat. So last night when she was eating I tried to sneak the paste in. She immediately froze, sniffed, and then blew the feed all over the ground and her face.

So now I am putting the paste into a syringe and giving it to her like wormer.

I am so grateful that you guys, especially Becky, mentioned this condition. At first I felt kind of silly posting my original question, but now I am so glad that I did. Thank you all Again!

P.S. She is also shedding like crazy! I am covered in hair after messing with her and this morning there was globs of hair in her stall. I read (I think on this forum) that it may be a sign of getting closer to foaling. I sure hope so!

 

[luv2ridesaddleseat]

Wow Julie, thank God for this board! I had never heard of this either!

You people are all amazing here! Thanks for all you do!!

Julie, I'm glad your mare is so much better. Can't wait to hear about you new little one!!!

 

[Genie]

Wonderful news. Hope you have a nice baby soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tenltraining]

Hi,

Im so glad your mare is doing better. YOu did the right thing calling the vet when you did. I have seen this before and normally it has been a mare that was nursing a foal as they tend to take a lot out of the mare. My vet had recommended

dicalcium phospate, or I believe they call it di--cal a powder supplement for that particular horse for the rest of the time she was nursing a foal. You might want to have some on hand or ask your vet about that so she will have less chance of it re-occuring while nursing this foal.

Take care and good luck with her, hope all goes well for her foaling! Laura

 

[Becky]

Julie, so glad to hear that she is doing well today and that we were able to help yesterday. I'm really glad that you were proactive and called your vet right away and didn't take a 'wait and see' approach'. That could have had really dire results. I'd rather see a false alarm than a dead horse!

Good for you on putting the paste in a syringe to get it down her. You might try mixing it with some applesauce, pudding or yogurt to help with the taste.

Keep us updated on her foaling.

 

[MountainMeadows]

Hi all, - is the "thumps paste" available over the counter? If so, it would probably be a good thing to have on hand this time of year.

If anyone would know, the people on this LB board would - what a great resource for horse owners all over the world -- I just love MaryLou (

)and LB for allowing this to exist - where would many of us be without all the valuable advise offered here by those with many years of experience in many different areas.

Stac

 

[Lucky-C-Acres-Minis]

Hypocalcemia is what we lost one of our broodmares to last August.. Unfortunately we weren't so fortunate with signs as it presented itself fast.. She was a lactating mare with a 3 month foal.. Was fine that morning, ate her grain, and turned her and our other pair of mare/foal out to pasture.. Ran into town for some quick errands came back no more than hour and a half later to find her breathing extremely hard, sweating and lethargic, had also looked like she'd rolled so immediately suspected colic, only thing unusual from typical colic was it felt like you could feel her heartbeat no matter where you touched her= thumps, but at the time had never dealt with it so did not know that.. Loaded her into the trailer and rushed her and baby to the clinic.. First they thought she sounded like she had a heart murmur which is what was causing the feel of heartbeat over her body, but it wasn't until we had them pull blood and test that we found out she was VERY low on calcium, gave her a calcium shot and she seemed to perk up.. Left her there overnight so they could keep an IV in her, but took her colt home to start weaning as recommended by the vets.. By morning we got a phone call saying we need to come get her and rush her to OSU Campus as she wasn't doing better.. It had started affecting her neurologically at this point, had started head pressing, circling overnight, and by the time we got down there she was down and couldn't rise though she tried.. Loaded her and drove as fast as we could but lost her on the trailer

At that point the vets swore that there was "something" else wrong with her that had triggered the onset of the hypocalcemia and ultimately losing her, since she was on a complete feed, plenty of hay, fresh water, pasture etc. and that nursing the foal alone would/could not have brought it on and pull her calcium that low.. However, after an autopsy they could not find anything else suspicious and ruled her COD as hypocalcemia.. Was an unfortunate learning experience for us, glad you posted about your gal as we were told it typically only affects lactating mares

 

[cretahillsgal]

Lucky-C, so sorry to hear about your mare. The signs ARE very subtle and it seems that this is not a well-know condition.

I was told that it usually does present itself in lactacting animals, and the vet was surprised to see it in my mare. I had her go over my feeding program with me to see if maybe I was doing something wrong, or needed to add something more. But she said that she thought that I was providing an excellent feed program. Don't know what went wrong with this mare to cause her blood calcium to drop. She did tell me that sometimes feeding too much calcium, can cause the same problem. Evidently the body gets used to having the calcium "served" to it through the hich-calcium feeds and then the body forgets to help regulate it when the feed is changed or something stresses the animal to much.

I don't think that Image is overly stressed, but I did bring her up out of the mare pasture about a week ago to watch her more closely. I didn't change her feed ration any, but I was feeding her hay out of my small square bales. When out in the pasture she was eating off a round bale 24/7. Vet said that maybe the new hay (small squares) does not have the nutrients that the large round bales did.

The paste that the vet gave me is called CMPK Gel and says that it is maily for use in dairy cattle. But safe for other species too. It is made my Duravet.

Here is a link to a similar one by a different company at Jeffers Livestock. CMPK Gel

I am giving my mare 4 mls once a day and monitoring her in case she needs more. And she will likey be getting this until after the baby is weaned as a precaution.

 

[Sully]

Don't feed that gel as a preventitive unless your mare has hypocalcemia. If you do and she does not, you can throw her metabolism all out of whack.

When our dairy cows used to get it, (usually our highest producing girls) we would use the IV calcium. They would go from almost comatose to standing and eating within minutes.

Too much calcium is as bad as not enough. It causes pretty much the same symptons.