Milk Testing 101 (with pH ! )

[rideagoldenpony]

Watching a maiden mare here now too… for the past WEEK she’s been doing every single thing a mare in labor does – EXCEPT for the part about actually having the baby! But tonight her bag is huge and tight and way different than it has been.

Mid-day she was at 175 on Chemetrics (and that was the very FIRST I was able to get more than a single drop out of her, and it was easy milking this time), like 200 on the calcium and 6.8 – maybe 6.4 – on the pool strip.

I did more tests tonight. I’m impatient, what can I say.

Chemetrics was over 200, pool strip at 400??? calcium – that one is really hard for me to tell – the colors are just so similar – and the pH was at the lowest my box reads, which is 6.4.

I really like the strips – they are easy and fast, and you don’t need much of a sample, but honestly, sometimes trying to decide if it is a little yellow-er or a little orange-er is just a little harder than I’d like! The Chemetrics just gives you a NUMBER, and then you know…

[flyinghorse]

I am looking at all these really accurate results, and am looking at my mare…she has had pH below 6.8 (lowest reading on the strip) for four days, now. The color has been very yellowsih on the strip…with dark red-orange being the highest pH value, and pale peach the lowest. Her milk tests 150-175ppm on Chemetrics. She normall foals a bit early, but she is at day 325 today. Last year she went at 332. When I went to check her milk this afternoon, I bent down, and she just squirted it at me, though is is still pretty yellow in color, and not thick enough. It is starting to get a bit of a sweet taste to it. Any predictions??

[Signature]

I’m with you - we’re watching a maiden mare who has been at 6.8 and calcium about 300 for 3 days now. Her milk is still very yellow and super super stick, and slow like molasses. She is 333 days today.

The other mare has had one foal, and her milk has been up and down. It was in the mid 7’s during most of the week then last night was about 6.8, then this am back up to 7.6 or so. This mare’s milk looks much much more like milk and tastes sweet. She is 349 today and went 342 with first foal.

This worked fabulously on our first mare to foal - but hers dropped to 6.2, the square was unmistakably yellow as corn, then she went 24 hours. These two are still not near as “yellow”, much more orange or orangey pink (on my strips at least). Since I have so little experience with it I am not sure yet just how to interpret things, so perhaps once they drop to the low 6’s like the first mare they will go! Maybe that’s the key!

[junebug84]

So, my question is, do you guys always go according to what the test strips show, or colour/consistancy of milk?
Today was the first day we tested my mare. After being up for the past two weeks, I decided that enough was enough, and I was driving into town and finding pool strips if it killed me!!! I testes her at 1pm and again when she came in at 7pm, both the same. She’s definitely at 6.2 on pH, and 500ppm maybe slightly over on Ca. Her milk is thick and sticky, but still has a yellowish tinge…
Am I correct in assuming that I should absolutely be pulling an all nighter?

[flyinghorse]

Oh, Yeah!

I would be sitting up with that one! Once their milk gets to that high in Calcium level, it could go anytime. My mare is still dripping occasionally, tests way low on pH, and is close to 200ppm on the calcium. Day 327.

[Leather]

I am now a believer in pH testing! I think we had been reading too much into the pH and interpreting it as lower than it really was. It had been below 7 for a few days, but not by much.

On Friday evening we tested the mare and on the pH strips rather than the usual reddish orange we got a definite yellow orange. The calcium changed FAST as well, whereas before it would slowly go purple.

On Saturday evening around 9:30 Kyrie delivered a beautiful filly.

Pics and videos in this thread: http://latigo.marestare.com/forum/index.php?topic=7146.135

[junebug84]

I’m still not sold on the test strips… We’re at 36 hours after testing 6.2 on pH and over 500ppm calcium, same readings.
Is my mare going to be one of the few that doesn’t foal in the ‘ranges’??

[flyinghorse]

Mare finally foaled

My mare that had the low pH for a week finally foaled at day 331…she’s always a bit early. He is a beautiful bay colt by Bergamon. I have posted pictures on my web site: www.emeraldspringequestrian.com

[Signature]

We had two go 24hrs with 6.2pH and then one go about 48 hours, but out of the three so far they all went relatively quickly once it bottomed out.

Make sure you have test strips that read below 6.8 pH - I noticed a lot of pool strips only go to 6.8 but we found that it HAS to get to the LOW 6’s before they will go. So you may get a 6.8 reading for days but not know it’s actually getting lower than that but can’t be detected.

[flyinghorse]

Thanks for the tip!

Thanks for the tip on getting the strips with a lower reading. I have one more mare due any day now. I’ll go get some spa strips tomorrow! The mare is aDonnerhall in foal to Fabuleaux.

www.emeraldspringequestrian.com

[JoZ]

I have a question. Before I knew anything about milk testing, I had a maiden mare close to foaling. For reasons beyond my control, the exact breeding date was unknown. I had been told about checking for wax, and to look for udder and nipple development.

One day she had a very small bag, almost nothing. Small maiden nipples. No wax. The next day she started labor at 3:00 pm, still with a small bag. Udder enlarged steadily through the evening – by midnight she was streaming “milk” (it was opaque white) and by 12:20 she had a foal on the ground.

So my question is this – if I had been testing, would she have gone from (let’s use the Foal Predictor Kit example) 0-1 squares to 5 squares in that 24 hour period? Or would I have known about the coming apocalypse had I been doing testing? It just seemed like she put it all together at the last moment, including changing water into milk!

Of course I ask because I’ve got another maiden about to foal now. Starting to show all signs except just clear fluid. I’m afraid to trust that it means much with a maiden.

[Signature]

If it’s any help also I got some aquarium test strips from Walmart. They tell pH and calcium (amongst other things) on the one strip so it’s easy to just dip and read.

We noticed that on these strips 6.8 was orange and 6.2 was yellow, and that it had to truly be stark yellow before they went. I kept thinking I was seeing yellow until it truly turned, then it was 24 hours for the two and 48 for a maiden.

[Signature]

Reincarnating this thread for more testing!!

We have our last mare who is 323 days today, went at 332 last year. Has been looking suspect for about 2 weeks now and testing 75ppm and 8.0+pH for about 10 days.

Then, Sunday PM she was 120ppm & 8.0pH, Monday PM she was 250ppm & 7.6pH and tonight, Tuesday PM, she was 350ppm+ and 6.8pH. So, we shall see how the pH works this time! Just hoping baby is “cooked” enough, but given she’s not too far from last year’s number of days and foal was fine, I think we are ok!

[Signature]

Just as an update, mare foaled last night after a test at 6pm revealed 350ppm+ cal and 6.4pH. The pH does really seem to work, or at least gets you pretty close according to all four of our mares!

[pintopiaffe]

We noticed that on these strips 6.8 was orange and 6.2 was yellow, and that it had to truly be stark yellow before they went. I kept thinking I was seeing yellow until it truly turned, then it was 24 hours for the two and 48 for a maiden.

:yes: I always get a little overeager when it’s still “peachy”. I know better, but… since I work nights, when it drops, I book. BUT, I also turn over and go to sleep if the mare lays down and sleeps and we’re still ‘peachy.’ It’s YELLOW YELLOW on mine.

Glad you had successful deliveries Congratulations!

[Erin_Pittman]

Ugh…I have a mare who is NOT happy with being milked, so for her I figured I’d just do quick daily checks of color, consistency and taste - just enough before she either walked off or tried to kick me. Once the milk changed enough in taste, THEN I’d try hard to get enough to test (with the help of a handler, twitch, etc.). Last night her milk finally changed color to white but was still salty, so I figured we had another day or two. NOT! Got a call this morning from our farm help that there was a foal in the field…:eek: This mare foaled in the field last year, too (also a filly and at day 340; this year was a filly at day 354). Next year will be different, I am bound and determined to figure out what this mare’s “signs” are because this year she really had none - no obvious change in behavior, no wax, the change in milk wasn’t really there and her tailhead/vulva’s been relaxed for WEEKS. I wonder if Sneaky Red Mare’s milk turned sweet an hour after I checked her… Oh well. Both Mom and Filly are doing well. Vet was already scheduled to come out and do some palpations, so the timing was actually good.

[Fairview_Horse_Cente]

When they change to white milk, that means you have “missed” the waxing stage, and gone right to any hour now. At that point, I watch constantly until they foal - 90% within 48 hours, 99% within 72. Occasionally you will get one go beyond that, but no more signs, until the water breaks.

[Erin_Pittman]

My other mares have had white milk for as much as 4 days before foaling. They have ALWAYS gotten sweet milk before foaling, not so with this one - at least not when I tested it! She obviously falls into a category that is more like your experience and not like my other mares. Live and learn…

[pintopiaffe]

My big red mare wasn’t even close to testing on her last, really wasn’t changed over at all. Big, incredibly violent microburst, and there he was when I got home.

What we dont’ know is if these mares would have shown changes in the test if we’d tested them, ya know? I was going by the other visual stuff… WOULD it have shown a pH drop? Dunno.

[Erin_Pittman]

That’s my thinking, too, Pintopiaffe. I did test her about a week and a half ago just to show some barn help how it was done. For that, we used the EZ Milker - she did kick it out of my hand once and I figured I wouldn’t bother again until I saw a visual change. This mare doesn’t want her udder messed with…imagine my surprise and joy when she developed mastitis last year… :rolleyes:

Our other mare, Leah, had pH at or below 6.8 plus Calcium over 1000 for 3 straight days - foaled on the 4th night. After that fiasco, I went out and bought new test strips that go down to 6.2. We’ll see what she does next year. That one foaled in the stall…