Chloe FILLY 4/10 - on CAM 1 tonight, Dove Filly! 4/5 - Dove/Ruby CAM 2 tonight (4/11

[acottongim]

OK, so much to share… As for the name… Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers work even better because my grandma loved red shoes and was always saying that “they make my feet walk faster.” So lots of significance in that name! It got the unanimous vote from everyone in the family (who were all glued to their various computer screens… how funny is that? Thank You Dove for foaling at such a NICE hour (Chloe you hear that??).

Vet just left. He gave Ruby and Dove a clean bill of health. IgG was very high and baby sounds good. He thinks she is a little on the small side, but that is the only thing he could find with her. BTW… This foal has made both of my vets (it is a practice of 3 vets and 2 work primarily with me) very very happy. This was my older vet’s first frozen baby (he now jokes that he is at 100% conception rate on frozen - it is the only one that he has done) and my younger vet was the one that was following the twin situation with me… so this filly has a lot of significance for them.

He swung through Chloe’s stall before he left and gave his prediction that she is close… thinks tonight/tomorrow (yeah right… LOL)

OK, the test strip thing… I’ve never said I don’t think that they work or aren’t a good tool. But I also know me. If I have a mare (like Chloe) that is showing al signs of impending birth, but the ph/ca isn’t just right would I go to bed??? Prob not - I don’t trust things that much. I also KNEW Dove would foal last night - even without the strips… She had thick globs of pure white wax on both teats - she wasn’t going to stay like that for very long and not foal. The strips were just another “proof” that she would go. So will I use them again… sure (esp now that I bought everything, not that it was expensive, but if I bought them I might as well use them LOL), but will I ever rely on them or completly trust them??? Prob not - but ask me in a couple of years I may have changed my mind! LOL.

And can I just say how good it felt to SLEEP last night??? I did get up a few times - checked the monitor 2 or 3 times, and went to the barn once to chekc on little Ruby, but the rest of the time I slept in my bed…heaven!

[westernrider]

Anissa, you are where I am-- I did not stay up all night waiting for my baby because the strips said to. I did it because my mare and my gut said it was time. At that time, the strips were on probation… but they DID work on my mare, and since her strip results tracked in a linear fashion, and would have been a pretty accurate predictor, I am now testing the second mare, to see how that goes. If the strip results track along with the second mare… well then I will probably be a believer.

I suspect that once you’ve done it a few times, you can almost just express the milk into a container and tell how close you are, by the milk. But I’m glad I tried the strips and if they are accurate again on the second mare, will not hesitate to recommend them to others-- as an additional indicator.

Boy did it feel good to sleep through the night last night! I got a full 7-8 hours! Actually not as rested as I felt after 3 hours after my filly arrived yesterday-- but maybe after tonite. I think my mare #2 will wait til later in the week, so I can catch up on sleep a bit this week.

I love your filly’s name! Dove did a great job, and so did you.

[Stacie]

Congrats acottingim.

[acottongim]

Oh I agree… they were spot on with Dove (of course I got similar readings the night before, but the signs were stronger last night). I’m not saying that they don’t work! To me it is just another tool along wiht all the visual signs - and I’m gong to trust hte visual over the strips (I say this knowing it is “me”). I’ll go down and do Chloe in a little bit here… I need to feed too. Weather is still kind of yucky so don’t know if I’ll get anyone turned out today.

[Home_Again_Farm]

Congrats on such a lovely filly!!! :D:D:D:D:D Did you steal my filly mojo? :winkgrin: If so, I want it back! :lol::lol::lol:

Here is my take on milk testing. I agree that it is only one tool of many that we should be using. Where I think you and I differ is in how accurate we think the various tools are.

You trust what you call visual indications - I assume you mean things like color of milk, laxity of muscles, vulva, attitude which includes eating, restlesness, behavior.

I have come to the conclusion over foaling my girls out since 1996 (a blip on the radar to many of my fellow breeders, so please understand I claim no real expertise), that the visuals are very subjective. What are lax muscles to me may be not so lax in someone else’s view. Swollen vulva ? How swollen? Restless? Some get restless, some don’t. White milk? According to this thread Chloe’s has been white for a week or so. How white is white?

That is why I have come to really believe in the milk tests, especially with mares that I haven’t tracked for years. The tests don’t tell you when the mare will foal, but they are about 98% accurate in telling you when they won’t foal. So, with the tests, I have been able to rest fairly easy through foal watch until the last 2 nights (usually the last night, but I have one mare that is slightly outside that 98%)

When I foal my girls out at home, I keep a chart on each mare. From day 300 onward I fill out a chart with a list of indicators (daily at first and later 3-4 times a day). The indicators include things like temperature AM and PM (I no longer use temp as it has not proven to be accurate in my experience), skin temp, body shape, croup tension, udder (fullness, milk color, stickiness, ease of milking, taste), vulva shape and mucosa color, sclera (the eye often becomes bloodshot the day they foal), appetite, attitude and behavior (especially changes in behavior), and last — milk test results. (I do not test milk until it is fairly easy to express. If it stays clear and salty, I don’t test. Once it changes color I test daily. Once the CA starts to climb enough for the Chemetrics to change color, I may test more often than daily.)

If I see some visual changes but the milk results say “no way” I am likely to pay attention to the milk test.

On the other hand, if the milk test has risen to 150 or so (which is below the magic 200 for Chemetics - as in there is a 98% chance that a mare will NOT foal within 24 hours if she has not yet reached 200) but I am seeing things like white milk, swollen vulva, yawning, butt pressing, occasional rolling, pink sclera, milk is not salty, etc — I stay up even though the milk test say no need. That has hardly ever happened to me.

It is much more likely in my experience that the milk test tells me to stay up before a lot of the visuals I mentioned above show up. :yes: That is why I swear by testing milk. For the last two years I have sent my mares out to foal. The farm owner uses my charts and uses the Chemetrics tests that I provide. However, because the visuals weren’t strong enough for them they didn’t start testing milk on one of my mares when I would have. Guess what? They nearly missed her because she hadn’t built a huge bag, hadn’t done many of the things I mention above. No one knows what her milk would have tested the night she foaled, but my bet is that it would have been about 250. I had always considered her my easiest mare because the milk test is so accurate with her, but she is a very calm mare who shows few other signs and always foals before midnight. :yes:

So, I think we agree that the visuals are important and that testing milk is only one tool of many that we need to use.

But, in my experience, milk testing is the most reliable of all the tools and that with it and a good cam on your mare you won’t miss her. :yes:

Sorry to go on and on, but I find the whole foaling out predictors fascinating. I also want to help any newbies out there to be there when their mares need them. And not to be so sleep deprived that they can’t function. :yes:

Now Chloe needs to get a move on. :winkgrin:

[pony_grandma]

Awww… Sunday baby fun. I see the kids visiting and in the stall. Thanks for leaving the camera up.

I was back late last night and saw the news. Dove looks to be very much in love.

Isn’t Chloe jealous yet??

[acottongim]

Mary Lou - I may be a believer one day. And BY NO MEANS do I consider myself an expert!!! Chloe’s milk is white, but not nearly as white as Dove’s was last night… and I will say that it is easier to collect it in a cap or something and judge color easier than just expressing out a few drops on the fingers or so… it looks whiter until it is in a concentrated mass. I have not checked Chloe yet, and haven’t even cleaned her stall yet… We’ll see, and I will keep using/trying the strips.

As for all the little ones in the stall, they were Dove’s human family. They came up from south fl to see the wee one. They have been up here for the weekend.

Chloe is watching and interested.

[Foxtrot_s]

Off topic: Why do you call your area the Redneck Riviera? Is it normal Florida spring weataher to have the lightening storms and buckets of rain? Something like you have hurricanes in the Fall? I thought Florida was vacation land, all balmy and gorgeous! I did go to Tampa Bay once, and it was lovely. White, white sand that stayed cool to the touch. But I digress - buck up Chloe. Loves to Dove and baby.

[acottongim]

The area is called the Redneck Riviera because we get a lot of south Alabamians, and rednecks from FL that come to the area to vacation. It is also now, one of the big “Spring Break” destinations for the college crowd (think Girls Gone Wild and MTV sigh). It is normal to get lots of rain - not all at once though, and the thunderstorms due to how hot it has been - the hotter it gets the worse the storms will be generally. Hurricane season runs from end of May (or is it beg of June?) through first of Nov - with most of them occuring in the Aug/Sept/Oct range (or that is the “norm”).

[acottongim]

Took some photos of llittle Ruby outside today (just a little bit ago actually). I don’t think that Chloe is going to go. I’ll check her milk again when I feed (which will be a late feeding tonight as I’m going to go lie down for a while) but she was holding steady at where she was last night when I checked her at lunch time.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa264/acottongim/P4060012.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa264/acottongim/P4060005.jpg

[Jaegermonster]

I just peeked on the cam, she’s sleeping, awwwwwwwwwww.

[ThrghbrdJmpr]

I can’t stop watching Ruby… she is jsut the CUTEST darn thing all laid out and sleeping in that stall! Lovely photo of her outside. Dove is such a great mom!

C’MON CHLOE!!!

[acottongim]

I had the wrong photo of Ruby… I corrected it (the top photo)… grrrr… sorry!!!

[acottongim]

I am going out on a limb here and saying that Chloe will not have her baby tonight. The stips are exactly the same as last night (it is hard to read, they are in that “in between” color) around a 7.2 - 7.8 for the ph, and between 100 - 250 for the ca… The milk expressed tonight was much whiter though - less “skim milky” so maybe tomorrow??? BTW: I will leave Dove and Ruby in tomorrow while I’m at work and turn them out when I get home, so the cam will be up tomorrow during the day. I will prob swap the recievers for Dove and Chloe tomorrow since Dove’s picture is so much clearer (if I can figure out how to do so without changing cams… THAT my friend is the question! LOL).

[nsm]

acottongim, HUGE congrats on a very lovely filly. She is just precious, and good luck with Chloe,

nsm

[Jaegermonster]

Chloe is hanging onto it just to spite you

[acottongim]

[QUOTE=Jaegermonster;3128110]
Chloe is hanging onto it just to spite you[/QUOTE]
I would not be surprised if that was the case! LOL. I need to change the title again I suppose since she is at 349 days today… sigh. At this point, I’ll just wait till tomorrow and make it 350.

Thanks Nancy! She is really something sweet.

[Foxtrot_s]

You mean we get to go to bed early tonight???

[jodyb]

Congrats on your lovely filly! I hope Chloe presents you with a healthy foal soon.

[092556]

I don’t mean to be an alarmist but Dove does not seem very happy with her neighbors. She has charged across the stall in full rage and sent the foal scrambling to get out of the way several time and I have not been watching very much. You might consider hanging a tarp to block the veiw from the nosy neighbors.