We had about 48-72 hours left to go with those results. Hope this helps! Once the pH dropped it was noticable. 7.2 to 6.2 from one night to the next. The next night we had the baby. It was about 24 hr from the 6.2 reading. This was my first time doing these pH type tests and I am becoming a believer - we’ll see on our next 3 to foal! 
If you can lift her tail easily, ie NO resistance to lift it to horizontal… and if her vulva is puffy, no wrinkles; then with your signs, I would probably set an alarm every 3 hours to peek in on her. That’s because if mare was telling me she was ready, and the test strips said “not yet” (or vice versa) I’d still err on the side of caution.
When I peeked in on her, I’d be looking for soft/wet stool, and wax-- as well as any obvious signs of labor. She is PROBABLY not quite ready, but I always would rather get up “just in case” than miss being there in case help is needed.
My mare’s milk never got sticky. It did get thicker, and right at the end, it was SO easy to express-- half as many squeezes for a more than adequate test sample-- but not sticky til after she foaled.
After reading this thread and hearing how well it worked for some of you, I went to Walmart and bought the pool strips and distilled water.
Before testing the milk I tested the distilled water, just to see.
Well, the Calcium was 0 but the Ph 6.2.
Then I mixed milk and distilled water as per above recipe and came up with Calcium 500 and Ph 6.2. I did it twice to be sure. I also tested the milk alone and came up with Calcium 1000 and Ph 6.2.
Since I have not teted this mare’s milk before this evening, I don’t know how to interpret the results. The mare started dripping milk today.
How close is she ?
Thanks in advance !
I have no idea about the results of the milk or the water alone… but if your mare is dripping milk, and scored that low on ph/high on ca I would hazard a guess that it is today. If I was you personally (and could do it) I wouldn’t leave her alone during the day as she may go during the day, and if she makes it till the night, I would watch her tonight! I’m still testing the test strips - I believe that they DO work, just figuruing out how much to trust them as opposed to my own observations. But with those readings and the dripping milk you are CLOSE. Good luck and safe foaling!!!
Yes, I would say VERY close!! Ours went 24 hours with those results and started to drip about 6 hours from foaling. Good luck!!
Reporting Back
We had our filly on 4/1 and were using the pH strips -
Our mare had been progressing very slowly, then when the milk started looking cloudy, things started moving faster. We started testing 2x a day once it got sticky. Here are our results:
3/30 pm - pH=7.6 Ca=100 milk cloudy yellow, starting to get sticky
3/31 am - pH=7.2 Ca=120 milk started looking like skim milk, sticky
3/31 pm - pH=6.8 Ca=300 she foaled 6 hours later!
Loved the pH strips b/c being cheaper, we could test more often when we knew we were getting close (to confirm what was observed). Sounds like our girl didn’t give us as much warning as some, too, so I’m glad we were able to test 2x a day at the end.
Thanks guys, I learned a lot w/ this thread - now I can’t wait to see if our next mare tests similarly when she gets close. Good luck on your foalings everyone!
Elfe, distilled water should always test neutral on the strips (at least calcium & pH) so the ‘low’ reading is right.
When you added the milk (1: milk 6: water, right?) it stayed low–that should mean imminent. Given your additional clues… is it a colt or a filly? 
[QUOTE=pintopiaffe;3131548]
Elfe, distilled water should always test neutral on the strips (at least calcium & pH) so the ‘low’ reading is right.
When you added the milk (1: milk 6: water, right?) it stayed low–that should mean imminent. Given your additional clues… is it a colt or a filly? ;)[/QUOTE]
Well, nothing so far, but I have a feeling it’s going to be tonight. Which is just as well as last night was a disaster !!! It downpoured all night, one mare who lives in a run-in, stood outside all night, got soaked and got the due mare, who is in the barn, all upset. My dog retrieved a dead squirrel and did not want to drop it. My other dog was in the house while I was taking care of the horses and had diarrhea all over my laundry room including some laundry on the floor.
Yes, it was 1 milk, 6 water, I am surprised that distilled water would not have a pH higher than 6.2. Isn’t neutral 7.2 ? It’s been a long time since my last chemistry class !
Thanks for all the input, I only have one mare to foal this year so I won’t have an opportunity to test this further, so I’ll have to follow this thread and learn some more.
Thanks again.
We started testing tonite…
I was going to wait until the weekend but when I got home her bag was bigger, vulva fuller and slightly darker inside.
Chematrics was 60, ph was I’m guessing around 8. The strips I have don’t label .2, .6 etc. It just has the number and 4 color boxes for that row…any thoughts? It wasn’t a solid 8 but it wasn’t a 7 either. Three out of the 4 boxes in that row matched and the other was inbetween.
I found the ones I have online…looks like they are “universal” and test 1.0 ratings. I wonder if I should pick up some narrow ones at walmart tomorrow (he brought me home these ones from work). My boyfriend says whats the big deal, she’s in-between 7 and 8 and will go when she’s ready. Men!
http://talasonline.com/photos/environment/phstrips.jpg
I am surprised that distilled water would not have a pH higher than 6.2. Isn’t neutral 7.2 ? It’s been a long time since my last chemistry class !
In theory distilled water should have a pH of 7.0 (neutral), but it will absorb some CO2 from the atmosphere to tip it towards acidic (below 7.0).
Well, she foaled at midnight. I guess the test prediction was close enough to make it useful.
She foaled within 26 hours.
It’s a dark bay filly, found the milk bar without a problem, I am still waiting on the placenta to pass and more meconium.
Good luck to everybody else out there !
Congrats!!! So glad to see this test is helping so many and seems to be fairly accurate!
Our next mare is about ~75 on calcium and dropped last night from 8.4+ pH to 7.8 or so, she is at day 332. So, we are inching our way there. Will be interested to see how it works on her!
so now my milk readings are ph8.4 and cal 100, am I getting close?? But another stumper for me is that one teat has the readings above, the other is still a clear liquid. I fully admit to always milking the one teat for testing since she hates having anyone on the other side.
screwed that one up, got so excited I wrote down the bottle reading, not the test strip
DAH!!. Anyway her calcium is up and ph down from last night more like
cal 800 and ph 7.2 Now that I have everyone, including myself totally confused…
Sounds promising - I would say 24-48 hours to go. What does the “milk” look like?
[QUOTE=Signature;3133476]
Congrats!!! So glad to see this test is helping so many and seems to be fairly accurate!
Our next mare is about ~75 on calcium and dropped last night from 8.4+ pH to 7.8 or so, she is at day 332. So, we are inching our way there. Will be interested to see how it works on her![/QUOTE]
How is she testing now?
My mare was 60 and 7.4 Wednesday night. Last night (day 324) she was 95 and 7.4…
No real news until last night. Calcium was holding ~120 but last night was up to about ~150-175 and pH which has been steady but wobbling between 7.8 to 8.4 was now suddenly 7.4 last night. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm… she is 346 days today. We shall see how it goes with her - our last one went 48 hours from the inital drop into the mid 7’s to 6.2 when she foaled.
We also have our 3rd mare in the race. ~150+ calcium last night but 8.4pH.
OK all you experts, what would your prediction be for a mare that last night tested pH of 6.4 and Ca between 250-500?
She waxed up yesterday for the first time, and has been dripping milk off and on for about a week. We thought she would go last night, but no dice. She obviously didn’t read this thread! 
She’s at day 345. (She’s the one that developed placentitis around day 300–hopefully that doesn’t skew the test!)
She’s on Mare Stare, but due to internet issues the cam’s only on from 6pm-6am.
How about tonight? :winkgrin:
Our 3rd mare at 331 days tested 8.4 pH last night, 7.0 at 6pm tonight and then 6.4 just now at 9pm… HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!! Now she is ahead of mare #2!
She is a maiden, so who knows what will happen - milk is not white thought, but very very stick and thick, slow moving like molasses, but yellow, quite yellow. She was a bit damp feeling a few minutes ago, hot…and veins standing out on shoulders. Looking interesting!! ???
