Any updates yet?
(Heck, it has been 17hours since you last posted anything, that is a long time.)
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Lol. Waiting for the vet to get back to me to see when she can get out and confirm the impending baby. I have folks telling me the P-test isn’t reliable so a false positive is certainly possible. Little mare is looking fat and happy.
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Tell the vet that there is a crowd waiting for the answer.
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Following this thread, also excited for the answer!
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I don’t have any faith in the animal version of the peeing pregnancy test. While some mares( cows or sheep/ goats) can spontaneously come into milk due to hormones or eating clover or some other reasons and if you express the " milk" from the udder it can cause it to get larger .
So I guess it is possible she is open but due to her udder changes before you started messing with her and especially due to her shape I would be surprised if she wasn’t bred.
We are waiting impatiently @2bayboys …
Oh yeah, that pee test + that udder strongly points to “very late term”. I would get her pre-foaling shots done asap, like tomorrow.
Is her udder filling up more overnight, and coming down somewhat during the day? If so, there’s likely several weeks left. If not, not that long. You want as much of a strong antibody response in her colostrum as possible, and while 30 days is best, even 2 weeks is good. Absolutely do an IgG test by hour 8 post-foaling or so, and be ready to source tested frozen colostrum in case.
I’d get pool pH strips and once you can express more than clear liquid, put a drop on the pH square and see how things are progressing
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Should we start guessing on birthdate, gender and markings?
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Actually her udder is filling up during the day while in the stall then reducing overnight while she’s turned out all night. I’ve told my vet just to come whenever even if I’m not here and do bloodwork and/or ultrasound as appropriate as soon as possible. She travels with an assistant and the mare is easy and stays in the barn during the day. The “milk” she has is still yellowish clear, not thick like colostrum. @candyappy I’m only expressing a tiny amount, just enough to check what it looks and feels like. Also wanting to make sure that if baby does come, the mare is ok with having her teats touched. She is just turned three herself.
I have my first grandchild due in a month and I swear I’m much more nervous about this! 
I haven’t had a foal in 18 years.
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Having just gone through a surprise foal this past spring, I can say at this point it should be really easy for the vet to palp a foal if one is in there.
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I could have written this verbatim about my mare. It had only been about 15 years since my last foal, though. And no grandchildren. 
The whole thing was really nerve-racking. The one silver lining was we actually knew the breeding date and sire (they thought the mare was open when they preg checked her, so they rehomed her). But then my mare decided to go 373 days. By day 370 I couldn’t take the unknown anymore and admitted her to the hospital, where she had a healthy filly. She did need plasma for FPT, but that’s unsurprising given the mare had been dripping milk for a month.
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That is all it takes to stimulate them sometimes but like I said I doubt she isn’t bred.
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I looked at my calendar and the third week of September would be really really inconvenient so that’s where my bet is 
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HAHA, my bad, I should have said “filling up when she’s not moving around, doing down when she is”
Is it possible to turn her out during the day now? I only ask because unless she’s in a safe (free of predators, cranky herd mates, etc) grass paddock, then stalling her at night will give the ability to keep tabs on her.
I’d start testing that yellowish stuff. It’s pH can start changing before you really start seeing a color change. If it’s really high, you can test every other day or so, but as soon as it starts dropping, test daily. None of that will hurt.
Yes I have a small grass paddock where she can go alone at night in between two fields where she can still see other horses. August in Virginia is not a good time to turn out during the day as it’s pretty miserable.
We can also take down a wall in the barn to make a foaling stall. That’s what we did in the past but those were normal early spring babies where horses were in at night anyway.
Are the foaling predictor kits worthwhile? I assume they’re testing ph in the milk?
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The strips used to test pools are a lot cheaper, just make sure you get ones that give 0.1 readings vs 0.5. You are testing the milk.
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I’m in north central NC, just 1 county away from VA. Summer isn’t great, but it’s doable, all mine are out full time. And things are cooling off a leeetle bit, though we’re warmer and more humid this week than last (which was a nice cool spell, our AC was off!)
Don’t bother with a predictor kit, just get pool pH strips and drop a dab of milk right on the pH square 
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That much udder development on a young maiden mare means a baby is on the way soon, in my experience! I’d grab some pH strips and start testing asap. Hopefully your vet can get out today/tomorrow for a palpation or transabdominal ultrasound, too.
Contrary to candyappy’s posts, expressing a small amount of fluid for testing purposes does not stimulate milk production. Especially since the entire point of testing is to find out when the milk (colostrum, to be specific) has come in - until then, what you are expressing is not actually milk.
Come on over to the Sport Horse Breeding forum and join us on the 2022 Foal Watch thread! We haven’t had any new arrivals recently and will welcome you with open arms. 
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Alrighty! I have hot tub test strips, I’ll dig them up!
Vet coming tomorrow.
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Ok. I admit I don’t know what I’m doing here. I didn’t dilute the “milk” at all. It’s thicker than two days ago. But looks in normal ph range?
@JB ?
@Montanas_Girl ?
Hmm. Computer monitors can distort color in photos a bit, but that looks low/mid 7s to me. For most mares, that would mean you’re several days to a week or so away. For mine? It means 48-72 hours. Lol. Isn’t foaling fun?
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