Skinny Nursing Mare

Sky had only ever eaton grass hay before I bought her. I planned on keeping it that way since, at the time, grass was cheaper than alfalfa and if that's what she was used to, I saw no reason to change it. Well, one day I show up to buy hay and the grass looked just awful. It was complety yellow on the outside, so I refused to buy it and got alfalfa instead. Even when the grass hay looked better, apparently there was a huge shortage and the price of grass passed the price of alfalfa. Here in Az I pay $15 a bale for grass and Alfalfa is about $12. So anyway, I chose to continue feeding alfalfa, until her face slowly started to break out in sores. It got so bad that the hair around her mouth and eyes started to come off in chunks. That's when I had the vet out who filled me in on the problem (I had never heard of photosensativity before that). He said to switch her back to grass only, and that's what she's eaten ever since.

Oh and it's Bermuda grass.

She'll probably Hoover that grass pretty quickly the first couple of days but she should slow down soon. MAN! I miss those gorgeous bales of Bermuda that I used to get in AZ! I forgot when I said a half bale, that you guys get 100+ pound bales, I was thinking in terms of our 50 lb ones.

Can you post a side on pic of your mare so we can see what we're trying to fill out? It will help because sometimes they drop a few pounds and we think they look ghastly when it's really not that bad. Or sometimes they look ghastly and we think they're ok......

Sorry it took me a couple days, but here are a couple pictures from yesterday.
Her ribs don't look like they're trying to bust out, but her spine does. She has no topline right now.

She will be a knock out when you get her fat!. The foal looks to be in great shape and she has a little fat roll on her side. She still needs some groceries
But it looks like with the free choice hay , some corn oil or canola oil, and the supplements she should start to put on weight, especially when that baby starts to eat more on its own. Bermuda hay has a good protein level. I have bermuda pastures, as the type of grass is different then the lawn variety . Grazing bermuda is a good feed. I only get hay in 100-110 lb bales. Keep doing the same thing and don't get to exasperated, its easy for a horse to drop weight and hard to put it back on.. (sigh) wish I had that problem!!

She's not looking too bad and with you upping her feed and grass hay, she should pick up fairly quickly. As the baby gets a little older, 4 mos, you can start pulling her off for a few hours at a time to prepare for weaning. That will help her not lose it all to lactation as well.

Good, it's nice to hear she's not too terribly skinny.
I am giving her coconut oil but I don't know if it's really making much of a difference. I read somewhere that it's good for putting weight on a horses topline. I bought a gallon of Cocosoya just before she foaled and it made her really shiny. I have to order it though so I switched to just coconut oil I can buy from the store, but I wonder if there's an oil that would help her more, or does it matter?