How to test Mare's Milk?

[crazyovergracie]

My mare is due any day. She is very full & swollen. In fact, her teats are so full now, they look more like small "bumps" rather than elongated nipples like before. I see advice given on here about testing a mare's milk for calcium & Ph levels. Hmmm? How do you do it?

I saw a picture on the foaling hints thread of a homemade breast pump so-to-speak and have made one with a clean syringe. I don't have enough hands to hold it, pull the plunger, keep the mare still and so on! How on earth do you realistically get milk to test? I think, my mare doesn't really want to be messed with. I've tried pulling/rolling the teat by hand and get nothing. Is she not ready to give milk or am I doing something wrong? I guess this is rather silly, but could someone explain how you test your mares and when??

Thanks!

Jennifer

 

[Boinky]

Jennifer,

can't help you much witht he test strips..i know your suposed to mix the milk with so many parts distilled water..but acan't remember what the parts are..

BUT have you ever milked a horse or cow before? The way you described how you were doing it didn't sound like you had. you do not ROLL the nipple.. what you do is you gently close your thumb and pointy finger around the nipple up by the bag.. before you squeeze the nipple nudge upwards intot he udder which will allow the milk to dropthen tighten your fingers around the nipple up high and pull downward..basically it's like filling something up with water.. if you just sqeeze it doens't come out..but if you squeeze and pull down so tha tit PUSHES the milk out the holes.. hope that makes sence. Your mare may just not be ready to give milk yet either..but i'ev found that milking horses is far more difficult than many other animals (cows, sheep, goats ect). there's definatly a trick to milking but do not twist/roll the nipple!

 

[pepperhill]

I made the home-made syringe too. The first one was out of a good sized syringe, (I thought) but it just didn't work,. I went to a bigger syringe. The other thing I learned is that after trying a couple of times unsuccessfully, it was almost like the stimulation caused a bit of milk to let down, because suddenly it worked. The mare I tried it on was VERY un-amused by the whole proceeding. I had to tie her off on the gate and swing her around until she was up against it on one side to finally get somewhere. My other mare will hold still for a hand milking. You do have to start your downward pressure up higher on the bag, not just on the nipple. Good luck!

PS I used PH test strips made for pool water testing. I put in one part milk, 6 parts water, and dipped the strip. It showed me the PH was very low, and sure enough, the next evening we had a baby. If your mares bag is that big surely she is close!

 

[Miniv]

You can use as little as 1/2cc milk to 3cc's DISTILLED water.

The 60cc syringe is best for making a "breast pump".

MA

 

[crazyovergracie]

This is great! :aktion033: I'm literally laughing out-loud!!!! The answer is NO... I've never milked anything. I can't believe I even had to ask such a thing. THANK YOU so much for the help, I will try again and see what happens.

 

[Boinky]

lol well i milked a cow or two when i was a kid and a goat or two..but it was just one of those things i did on a field trip type thing..lol so i knew how to do it..but let me tell ya..lol it was a WHOLE lot harder milking a horse when i actually started havign foals round! the first one i ever had to milk was a big hannovarian mare...she wasn'tt oo amused about it all but once i figured out how to get her going things go easier..it's even HARDER on the mini's cuz you have to bend down so low..lol.. they just don't have the nipples like a cow or a goat..lol.. try a few more times but remember you need to start higher up on the nipple and squeeze DOWN..i just thought of another anlogy for you to think of..you know when you eat a freezie pop (the ones in the plastic strips) or a gourt yogurt thing?... well you know how you start at the bottom and squeeze the stuff upward so it goes out..well basically it's the same thing..you start at the top of the nipple up by the bag and squeeze it down..LOL.. once you get it you'll understand..kinda hard to describe! i don't know if your near any dairy farms or anything but maybe youcould talk to a farmer about teaching you to milk a cow..it would be easier to learn on something with larger nipples like that and have someone walk you through it..then try it on the horse

i DO think it's a good thing to know how to do weather you need to use it or not in this particular time..because if you are doign any breeding at all..there might come a time when you NEED to milk the mare to feed a weak foal or something... or you might be at a horse show showing your mare and you can't have the foal nursing so you'd need to squeeze out a little to releive her ect..

Pepperhill,

LOL i made a syringe breast pump a few years ago and hadn't had need to use it..well this year i decided to give it a try. I have a mare due any day so i decided maybe it was a good idea to TRY it before i really NEEDED to use it if i needed to. lol i had mare foal out last august so she's still producing milk and i thought i'd try it on her. I cannot think how you would release the suction wthout loosing milk so i figured i'd experiment on the mare that has milk and see how it works ect..lol well she was NOT amused with me at all..lol i couldn't get any milk out of her using it.. course i tried milkign her by hand after and i couldn't get any that way either..so i don't know if the filly sucked her dry just beforei brought her in or what.LOL.. guess i need to try it again! lol i kinda got a chuckle reading your post because it sounded exactly like what i did the other day with it (except i DIDN'T get milk..lol)