Anissa, before you die of sleep deprivement, here is my best advice - go to the swimming pool supply store and buy a box of spa strips that test both water hardness abd PH, get some distilled water and go home and test the ladies’ milk. Read the thread on milk testing with PH. Then you will have some idea of where they are in the scheme of things.
I have watched mares for quite a few years now, and I can tell you that testing the milk is the very best indication of foaling. Of course other signs must be taken into account. I use Chemetrics and have never had more than 2 nights up using it. No time to order that, so go for the spa strips which can be found in any town and are inexpensive. Do yourself a big favor and test the milk.
Anissa. those hussies are going to have their babies outside, while you are at work. You will come home, and Chloe, the Drama Queen, will look hautily at you and dare you to find a flaw in her baby. Dove, the Sweet Quiet One, will look at you meekly, and hope you understand that Chloe made her have the baby while you were away…
[QUOTE=westernrider;3123219]
Anissa. those hussies are going to have their babies outside, while you are at work. You will come home, and Chloe, the Drama Queen, will look hautily at you and dare you to find a flaw in her baby. Dove, the Sweet Quiet One, will look at you meekly, and hope you understand that Chloe made her have the baby while you were away…[/QUOTE]
Well I"m home and they didn’t foal while i was at work. So that theory didn’t pan out LOL.
ML - and other “test” users - I did get the stuff to do the PH/CA… although the test will now be do I have the patience (this is never my strong suit and esp not when I’m exhausted) to actually DO the chemstry mixture etc… and figure out the math part of it. I will reread the directions and see if it makes sense etc. BUT we all know what it is going to say right??? The mares will foal tonight! LOL. AND Dove is a maiden, and from some of the wise ones that use this have already stated, you can’t necessarily go by the test for a maiden as they don’t read the rule books…
OK, I’m out to the barn to clean the stalls, bring them in, do the test, then GO TO BED.
Well, I have tested several times and am going to test again this afternoon. I think Tess might go before Chloe. She’s pretty close to getting serious about this baby birthing business. I have not turned her outtoday, but may let them out for an hour just to waddle around. She is restless, shifting weight, shaking her head, itching on buckets and feeders, much more active than normal in the stall … oh, and peeing with ridiculous frequency… 3 times in less than 10 minuts not long ago.
At 10 am she had 500 Ca and under 7 for pH but, while her milk was opaque it still had a bit of a yellow tint to it.
Soon, I will apply the dreaded tail wrap. I have already got her deep in straw, after this mornings milk test results.
Ok, I did the test strip thing and if I did it right (I think I did, but have to add that disclaimer) here is what I got.
Chloe FAST reads on ph and ca - ph of 7.2, ca of 100
Dove FAST reads on ph and ca - ph of 6.8 and ca of 250 moving upwards
The spa strip thingy that i got does not have reads of over 250 (except of 1000) for ca, and the incriments for ph is 6.8, 7.2, 7.8, 8.4
Sooooo if I read pintopiaffes’ thing correctly chloe I need to recheck this evening and we are getting sort of close??? And Dove may be withing hours???
OK< someone help me interpret!!!
I’m going out to bring in the rest of the horses, hay/feed outside and hay/water inside and get grain into the barn… storm blowing up. First though,I"m going to bring in the receivers and get it all ready to go inside so I don’t have to run back to the house to do that!
Based on what I’ve read (from PintoPiaffe, a repro board, and another website-- but with no personal experience before this week…
Normal Ca is 50. If you get a reading of 250-300, it’s a yellow flag to pay attnetion, and continue testing because you are getting close-- but it’s not like you need to camp out at the stall (or watch camera nonstop)
Normal pH is 8.2, and when you drop below 7-7.2, you are very close and this is more reliable than the Ca test. When pH drops, it IS time to camp out since you are very close.
So I would say Dove is further along, and with her pH down below 7, she is the one you need to watch carefully. Ie within 12-18 hours?
And Chloe is progressing, since her Ca has started to rise, and pH has started to drop-- but are not to the levels that indicate she is very close.
I bought my strips Wed afternoon.
Tess had Ca 250, pH 8.4. So her Ca was “close” but not to the point that she’s seriously getting close. (I also tested Abby, just for comparison. She was 100 Ca, 8.4pH so I don’t even need to test her again til tonite)
On my test strips, I got clear matches on pH, but the Ca only had 100, 250, 500, 1000 so I had to guesstimate some of the inbetween results.
So Wed afternoon, Ca 250 pH 8.4
Thursday am Ca ~300, pH7.8
Thurs pm Ca ~400, pH 7.2 (so Ca now high enough to be on alert, pH borderline)
Fri am Ca 500, pH 6.2 (so now on true “alert status”)
Fri afternoon Ca 1000, pH still 6.2, as low as the scale goes
So in 48 hours her readings have progressed pretty dramatically. This bears out Pintopiaffe’s statement that when the Ca starts to go up, things are going to move.
If they were mine, I’d test them twice a day. If Chloe’s results have not progressed, you could drop her to once a day til she at least gets close to alert levels. I’m really surprised that they have such white milk, without higher Ca readings.
So how are you getting the readings of 300 or 400 etc for ca when the strips don’t really read those numbers? Is it based on how fast they change to the numbers? It is a color… I will say on both mares, I dip in the strip for 1 sec, and in another couple of sec (like literally almost before I can put the strip down on the table) they are reading the numbers/colors… see this is where I have no patience… I like things CRYSTAL CLEAR. I will retest later on after I feed and settle everyone in etc… just to get another set of readings and make sure I did it right etc. Dove’s milk IS whiter, but both mares have white milk. I also did Chloe’s first, so I may have done something wrong on her and did Dove’s better!
On the Ca, those are estimates based on judging how far between the 250 mark and the 500 mark, the color I got was. But, when I got 500 it was dead on, and the 1000 was dead on.
I left mine in for 2 seconds-- but the color changes were practically instantaneous. I did get clear matches on each pH reading, which is the more important one.
Good idea, to restest. That’s why I did it so soon again, to make sure I was getting a good consistent reading. Of course, since I was seeing progress, I was motivated to keep testing. Even with tests only 6.5 hours apart, I am seeing progress.
But I don’t have a “500” mark for the ca… it goes from 250 to 1000 so that makes it VERY difficult to guage the difference (IMO) esp when the dif in color isn’t THAT different (in my very inexpert eye the dif in color is about the same as going from 250 to 500 not a jump of 750 ppm does that make sense??? sigh…
OK, out to test again for the last time.
BTW… saw Chloe’s baby moving around and it was up near the flank - she has dropped down and towards the back - looked for all the world like the baby moving back toward the birth canal (but that is just me thinking that is what is looks like have no idea if that was really what I was seeing - just the easiest way to describe the movement). Dove is also moved down/back.
Oh… on my strips, I have 0, 100, 250, 500 and 1000 for Calcium. So really, once I get a bit past the 250 color, I have to estimate. But it probably doesn’t matter a lot, because by the time you get past the 250 on Calcium, the pH is probably going to be changing too. That is supposed to be the more reliable indicator, more so than calcium. And, since you already have white milk, I bet your calcium is there.
Tess is finally showing a better appetite for her hay, which makes me happy. Given that this stuff was shipped from Ca to Texas trust me when I tell you I almost cry when I clean uneaten hay out of her stall, as expensive as it was!
She just stopped eating, but did not even move to do her 99th urination of the day. Then put her head back down to eat some more. Hussy. Years ago I had one that literally broke her water with her nose deep in some alfalfa. Like she needed to get as much eaten as possible before she had to lay down and push LOL
OK I rechecked Abby. Her Calcium is up slightly from 100 but not yet to 250. Her pH dropped from 8.4 to 7.8. I suppose she must be figuring out that Tess is close, and trying to catch up. She is not due til next Saturday, but she’s 334 days so if she wants to have it, that will be fine with me.
Redid the tests… got the same on Dove, if anything the ca might be a little higher than 250 as the color was a little lighter, but since I don’t have a “500” I would have to guess that it is somewhere between 250 and 1000 so … that would mean PER THE STRIPS that she would go tonight right?? and prob before midnight??? or am I just being wishful thinking?
Chloe… got the exact same readings 7.2 for the ph and 100 for ca - so retest in the am? and prob won’t go tonight??? Of course, can’t all that change quickly given other circumstances? Like, Dove going into labor, the storm front coming in, full moon… yada yada yada… BUT I did think that if you see the baby moving (which I def did and several times while I was watering) it isn’t coming right then - I thought that it was when it was REAL still that they were imminent ??? So I didn’t wrap her tonight (I’ll tempt fate LOL - not that it matters anyway).
Well if it’s any help, last year my mare Maddie had a 6.8ph when I tested her in the afternoon and she foaled that night…I think 1ish. Go Dove Go!!! Chole? are you the jealous type??? I hope your sleepless night is justified tonight acottongim! I’m patiently watching one of my mares due April 12th. She’s not appreciating my daily proding at her udder. But by the way she looks now I expect she will foal near her due date…I think…
I’m not 100% certain on the timeframes. I think once you are past 300 on Calcium, you might still be 48 hours out… and many say the calcium is a less reliable indicator than pH.
It’s when the pH drops below 7.2 that you should have one soon, I have seen people say anywhere from 8-18 hours.
I would agree with you, if they are MOVING, they are not ready to come out. Once they are in position to be born, there is not any room for them to move.
I think that your strip results say Dove is closer, but not yet imminent. But I don’t know yet whether I’d bet my foaling on the strips.
I have not used the spa strips except to run side by side one year with Chemetrics as a comparison (yes I am a wannabe scientist:winkgrin:). But if I understand pintopiaffe’s many posts about them, it is not the CA but the PH that tells the real story. When the PH goes bright yellow you don’t have long to wait.
I like the Chemetrics test because it tends to give a gradual warning about when the mare will foal. The spa strips to me don’t show very precise changes in the CA, but instead you wait for the sudden change (BOOM) with the PH and you are foaling. I prefer the precise readings (50 to 85 to 125 to 200 and up) that I get from Chemetrics. But the spa strips should give you more idea of what is up than no test at all.
I have been watching off and on for the past week or so…they had me fooled too on April Fool’s Day.
FWIW I am going out of town this weekend to the same place I went last year when Suerte foaled…so if they’ve been taking lessons, they’ll foal tomorrow night!
