RE: [RC] OT (slightly) Pregnant older mares and calcium/phosphorus - Susan E. Garlinghouse, DVM
>, and the vet has
said that older mares need to have half their diet alfalfa because they need
the calcium/phosphorus.
A halfway decent grass hay will supply plenty of calcium and
phosphorus, as well as usually sufficient protein for herself and a growing
fetus. An extra pound or two of a 16-18% soybean-based mare-and-foal
pellet will help bump up the protein and minerals if the grass hay isn’t
quite enough by itself.
> The first mare's
owner (in effect I'm breed leasing her) doesn't want to feed her alfalfa
because it makes her difficult if not impossible to deal with.
Fair enough. I’ve managed old girls that got stupid
on alfalfa and managed to raise some pretty strapping babies without a shred of
alfalfa anywhere in sight. Heidi has probably raised dozens of them,
though I don’t know what her exact protocol is for feeding her
broodmares.
>The second mare
is badly depleted.
Badly depleted in what? Calcium and phosphorus? If
she’s still standing, she has plenty of calcium and phosphorus on board,
and doesn’t need more than the usual requirements for a pregnant
broodmare (which, for the first two trimesters, are the same as maintenance,
but if she’s underweight, I have no objection to her being fed at a
higher plane of nutrition). If she’s depleted, as in underweight,
then stand them both knee deep in good quality forage and let them go to
town. You’d be amazed at how good mares are at feeding themselves
given half a chance (and half a truckload of hay) to go to it.
> I have the first
mare on Mare Plus; I don't know what vitamin supplement the second mare is
getting.
I like Platinum Performance for pretty much every production
level, and I would probably give them a few pounds of a balanced 16-18% mare-foal
pellet and all the grass forage they can stuff down 24/7. Don’t
worry about getting more calcium-phosphorus into them, trying to maximize that
much calcium and phosphorus is more likely to interfere with other, less pushy
minerals that are nevertheless just as important. Make sure they’re
dewormed, put out a block of salt, give them a good water source and relax.
