Has anyone heard of this before?

[Reble]

Just found this information on Mare ready to foal within 24 hours or Less:

Has anyone tried this?

The best indicator I have found yet consists of the inspection of a few drops of the mare's milk once a day. I always attempt to carry out this process at about the same time each evening - usually feed time. Milk out a drop or two from the mare onto a black plastic surface (you really do only need a drop or two!). A watch strap was suggested to me originally, but I have found that the black plastic top of a 35 mm photographic film container works even better.

Well prior to parturition, the exudate will appear slightly white or yellowy, and one is easily able to see the black plastic below through the liquid. Within the 24 hours prior to the mare giving birth, the liquid will become almost opaque, and it will be very hard to see the black plastic. You may well also notice what appear to be large white granules in the liquid. It will probably take at least one foaling to be able to identify the difference, but once you've seen it, there's no mistaking it!

1999 Jos Mottershead and Equine-Reproduction.com

 

[disneyhorse]

Weeeeellllll..... unfortunately some mares will develop very thick, white, sticky milk for several days before foaling, colostrum and all. If only it were that easy!

Whoever can develop a 100% foolproof way of predicting within even 48 hours of a mare foaling will be a very rich person indeed!

Andrea

 

[Riverdance]

I read that last year and tried it. It worked about 50% of the time.

 

[Reble]

I read that last year and tried it. It worked about 50% of the time.

Ok thanks, I keep on hoping...

 

[Miniv]

DITTO to Disney and Riverdance........

You can BET that if there was a FOOL PROOF method available, it would be posted ON HERE!!!

 

[JMS Miniatures]

Most if not all of my mares always had white milk before they foaled. One waited for 48 hours. Thats my indiciator. My friend does the test strips and all that and I go by them but I look for the white milk. I believe I only had 1 mare that didn't but her patterns kind of went kind of whack and had a very bad delivery and baby did not make it.

 

[txminipinto]

I'm watching a mare now that doesn't drop milk until after the foal arrives. She has a huge bag of thick sticky yellow colostrum, but no white milk! pH strips seem to be the best indicator but here I am testing "ready" for 3 days now.

 

[Miniv]

Most if not all of my mares always had white milk before they foaled. One waited for 48 hours. Thats my indiciator.

Just want to chirp in and say that if all mares would be like that, I'd be doing hand-stands! And we wouldn't need all the tools and methods we use......(Forgive me, but I'm working on sleep deprivation with mare stare.)

For ME, when it comes to checking milk....WITHOUT using milk test strips, the color is the LAST thing I consider. Instead, it is CONSISTENCY.....ie, how sticky like honey or syrup it is. Their "milk" can be yellow, to milky.... and the shades inbetween.

 

[lilnickers]

Super sticky colostrum

This year I tried the Mother Nature's strips and tested when it was sticky (6 pm), strip read "foaling within 12hrs" .......well, at 9:30pm, we had a baby

I will be using them with each mare and see how we do.

 

[Minichick]

I used the milk testing strips today for the first time, maiden mare with no milk to test befor this. She tested 85% at 6pm and foaled 7 hours later.

 

[Joanne]

Over 150 births and rarely do my mares make it to white milk.

The thick syrup is great as an indicator, but sometimes I only get a scant drop or two (like the mare that foaled last night). And sometimes I get it for three weeks (like the mare that was ready on St Patrick's day and delivered on April 6th). She tested all squares and a ph of 6.3 for weeks.

My mares love to make my predictions wrong