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 Can You Hear Me Now?
  
Location: When you hit the middle of nowhere .. Keep driving | For health issues in the mare? What would be the earliest you would consider weaning if she started to go downhill? No flaming please... she developed this after she was bred, I wouldn't have bred her otherwise. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 253
Location: EDGE OF INSANITY | We usually wean at 4 months, but we had a mare die when her foal was 3 months and the foal was fine |
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Expert
Posts: 3147
| I had to wean a foal at six weeks. he was given to me and owner of mare didn't want him. I had him eating good before he was weaned, gave him calf manna with his grain and he had no long term ill effects. As a weanling he was pot bellied, but he was the tallest weanling in his class at a show and ended up being close to sixteen hands. |
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  Sock eating dog owner
Posts: 4557
Location: Where the pavement ends and the West begins Utah | Ideally at 4 months but you can wean at 2 months. Put grain out for the foal so he/she can eat with momma and keep the foal on it when you go to wean keep it familiar. |
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Sock eating dog owner
Posts: 4557
Location: Where the pavement ends and the West begins Utah | Ideally at 4 months but you can wean at 2 months. Put grain out for the foal so he/she can eat with momma and keep the foal on it when you go to wean keep it familiar. |
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![](<a href="http://s1191.photobucket.com/albums/z470/alicat0909/?action=view¤t=yellaandcalf.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1191.photobu) Heeler Hater
Posts: 3014
Location: Texas | friend of mine weans at 3 months. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1229
Location: Royal J Performance Horses, AZ | if i didnt have a choice and the mare needed the foal off I'd try at least 2 months. If you can drag it out 4 is the suggested. Around 4 months mares milk starts to lose nutritional value so it's not like it's a big help to the foal at that point |
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 Reaching for the stars....
Posts: 12708
| Observe the foal and make sure it is eating mom's food with her. Start adding milk replacer pellets to her feed ration so the foal learns that taste. Things happen, even if you have to continue feeding milk replacer (bucket or bottle), if the mare's life and health depends on this, wean. My orphans have been very healthy adults, and both were orphaned at 3 days of age. |
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 Crazy Chicken Chick
Posts: 36132
| lonely va barrelxr - 2014-04-09 6:17 AM Observe the foal and make sure it is eating mom's food with her. Start adding milk replacer pellets to her feed ration so the foal learns that taste. Things happen, even if you have to continue feeding milk replacer (bucket or bottle), if the mare's life and health depends on this, wean. My orphans have been very healthy adults, and both were orphaned at 3 days of age.
This. As long as you can is the answer to the least amount of time for the foal to be able to nurse, up to 4 months or so. I feed Mare and Foal in a tub on the ground. My foal is just a week old and already trying to eat with mama. Mama has a wound on her leg that is likely cancer, so I want baby eating as well as possible just in case something happens. We plan on having it biopsied when the foal is weaned at 4 months unless something happens before then but have taken slides of the drainage that suggest possible cancer so I want to be prepared. |
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 Swiffer PIcker Upper
Posts: 4015
Location: Four Corners Colorado | 3 month longer if possible. I'd start the mare and foal on Ultium growth. I've seen that stuff work mircles on mares. |
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 Expert
Posts: 3782
Location: Gainesville, TX | We wean at 6 but you can do it at 4 and they are still healthy. |
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 Roan Wonder
Location: SW MO | If she is started on grain you can put calf manna in her grain & it will really help her. We had a foal we had to put her mamma down at 6 weeks. The filly would not touch milk replacer of any kind. We feed her Purina 300 it has milk replacer in it with a little calf manna in it. She did great she is now 15.2 a big healthy mare |
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Can You Hear Me Now?
Location: When you hit the middle of nowhere .. Keep driving | Thanks guys. I have been fighting with this mare since early December. She has developed issues and with keeping weight on at all and has almost had constant abcessing since then. The vet is thinking some sort of metabolic disorder. I Honestly thought she aborted until she started to bag. The foal isn't born yet and I have got a decent weight on mom again but it's a rollercoaster. I hope that she hangs on and everything is good but it's been on the back of my mind. We have had to put mom on a special diet... it's ruling out a lot of grains in my area.
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 Expert
Posts: 4625
Location: Desert Land | I had a colt wean himself at about 3 months old. He kept getting under the rail of the stall to go hang out with my old gelding and he quit eating from mom and just wanted to eat the big boy stuff with the old man. So I just stopped moving him back to his mom and they were both content and he turned out fine. |
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 Ms. Marine
Posts: 4641
Location: Texas | We have always weaned around 4 to 5 months, but had one that was weaned at 3 and she turned out fine. |
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 The One
Posts: 7998
Location: South Georgia | The halter industry generally weans at 3 or 4 months...most at 3. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1898
| ndiehl - 2014-04-09 10:24 AM
Thanks guys. I have been fighting with this mare since early December. She has developed issues and with keeping weight on at all and has almost had constant abcessing since then. The vet is thinking some sort of metabolic disorder. I Honestly thought she aborted until she started to bag. The foal isn't born yet and I have got a decent weight on mom again but it's a rollercoaster. I hope that she hangs on and everything is good but it's been on the back of my mind. We have had to put mom on a special diet... it's ruling out a lot of grains in my area.
If it is a metabolic issue with mom try Renew Gold to help with weight, baby can eat it too. We were looking at a gelding who had a metabolic issue and needed to put on about 100 lbs. We don't have a big selection here and I had really good luck with Renew on our other horses so I contacted Phoenix and spoke directly to Winn. He said to feed .5 lb per job. So for your mare, living is a job, gaining weight is a job and nursing is a job, which would constitute 1.5 lbs a day. |
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 Canine Carryout Queen
Location: Oklahoma | Prefer to wean at 5 months... can wean at 3 if need be. |
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 Chasin my Dream
Posts: 13651
Location: Alberta | Ive weaned at 4 months....colt was more then ready, mare wasn't suffereing I just felt it was time.......colt never had a set back from it. |
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 Always Off Topic
Posts: 6382
Location: ND | with the right transition and program you could do alright at a month if you absolutely had to wean |
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Swiffer PIcker Upper
Posts: 4015
Location: Four Corners Colorado | It sounds like you need a low-starch feed. What feed brands can you get in your area? Have you tested your hay for sugar and starch content? |
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| ndiehl - 2014-04-08 7:40 PM
For health issues in the mare? What would be the earliest you would consider weaning if she started to go downhill? No flaming please... she developed this after she was bred, I wouldn't have bred her otherwise.
What's wrong with your mare ... sounds like she picked up some kind of low grade infection or is wormy big time.
If a mare is showing weight loss after visiting the stallion I will give PenG or SMZ and worm her twice in 30 days ... Quest then Ivermectin ...
I typically feed 8 lbs of 14% daily year round to my brood mares and if one is lacking up it to 11 lbs for her.
Nursing and summer heat will pull a mare down big time ... so you have to start feeding more in late April or May and increase feed during the time frame to keep her in good body condition with good pasture to go with it.
Weaning babies .... I will do everything I can to keep a baby with his dam till it is 6 months old ... that 5th and 6th month is where the mare teaches her rowdy brat some manners and it learns to socialize with other babies and mares ...
Look at the many pictures of babies you see on BHW with pot bellies, dead hair, big heads and extra long mane and tails while owner is saying they feed a half a cup of this and that and can't figure out why their baby is not shiny and growing ... lol ...
It all begins before the mare gets pregnant and continues after the foal is weaned .... once you see the downfall ... there is no Immediate catching up .....
IMO a skinny horse usually just needs some more groceries with a good feeding program to maintain or re-gain good body condition ...
6 MONTHS OLD IS WHEN I WEAN ... unless new owner demands taking the baby over my objections .... lol
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 BHW's Lance Armstrong 
Posts: 11134
Location: Somewhere between S@%&# stirrer and Saint | 6 months for me no big hurry. |
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What is the earliest you would wean?