I am not a breeder. This is my second foal ever and things are different than I remember. I have a mare that is bagging up at 303 days. I was telling my friend that things are moving along and asked if she wanted to feel her teetees lol. Well my friend went and squeezed milk out!! So I am unsure of a few things. Should she be able to be milked this early? Should that concern me? When should I start PH testing? Doesn’t milking them deplete the colostrum? I don’t want to milk her for the next 6 weeks to the detriment of the foal. HELP SOMEONE HOLD MY HAND
You need to determine what, exactly, is being expressed. What color is it? How clear/opaque? What consistency? Taste? Yes, you can taste it - salty? Sweet?
Can you post a picture of her udder?
Is 303 a definite number?
Has she had foals before? If so, when was her last one? What is normal for her?
My broodmare is at 302 days today and has a fairly well-developed udder with thin “milk” (Ca ~100 ppm and pH ~9). But I’m not worried because she’s carrying her 5th foal and has maintained some udder filling and “milk” since weaning her last one in October. Also, this mare was at roughly the point she is now at day 340 last year…but didn’t foal until day 379…so technically she’s right on schedule based on her history.
She has had one foal before. Four years ago and went 355 days.
It was thickish, yellow, no odor but I didn’t taste it lol
She was inseminated on July 14.
I took a picture of her udder let me see if I can figure out how to upload it. It isn’t huge. I never would have thought to try and express milk like my bonehead friend did. She is acting very normal otherwise.
My mare was inseminated the same day as yours, and this is her udder currently:
Unless your mare is bagging up very suddenly (which often signals placentitis), I think she’s within normal limits at this point.
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Thank you!!
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Okay so I guess the udder development is not a concern but how about the milking? When do people usually start testing PH and am I affecting colostrum?
Her udder looks normal for this time of the pregnancy. It’s got a long way to do, in terms of fullness which is entirely different from number of days, before it’s producing any sort of milk. It’s not nearly full enough to try to be testing things.
Once things start getting to the size of Montana_Girl’s mare’s udder, then consider testing.
You only need a couple of drops expressed right on the test strip to test, so you’re not affecting colostrum
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