I’m tempted to repeat the pee test in a week just to see. Although it was pure luck that I got a sample, one of my students saw her getting ready to go while I was making up feed and bless her heart dove into the mare’s stall and captured the sample in a solo cup. I had literally been stalking outside the stall for the previous 45 minutes, waiting, trying to look casual. 
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Wow, that is one dedicated student! High fives to them!
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An aside from the pregnancy discussion, but I just wanted to say I would not have thought those pics were of the same horse, forget only a couple months apart. Well done!!
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I am not here to argue or tell you what you can/ can’t do with your mares before they foal. I realize many owners do testing and have no issues whatsoever.
I am just pointing out that many people are reading this board and they may not have your experience and technique in properly doing your milk testing and as you pointed out it is not an impossibility for a mare to develop mastitis .
That is why I discourage owners from doing so. It just protect them from having to possibly deal with that.
Much easier to just have the vet do a pregnancy check.
Sorry to go off topic. It wasn’t my intention.
Yes all my mares are fine with having their udder touched and cleaned. What I do not do is try to express anything out of them, therefore removing the teat plug that naturally protects them.
As far as I am aware mastitis is due to something getting in. Whether that is due to the teat itself or due to the udder having an injury or skin issues where bacteria can get in.
I know it is uncommon in horses but as I stated( above) a lot of people read these posts and may not know how to properly ( cleanliness protocols) do that and may unknowingly put their mare at risk.
Just trying to be cautious. I’ve only dealt with it once in a goat. Once was enough and I wish I would have known the risks. She developed it due to one of her kids and I lost her because of it.
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I never said it makes them produce milk. I said it stimulates them to continue to produce whatever it is they are producing. many times if an animal bags up some due to clover or soy if you just leave the udder alone they dry up in a fairly short time.
If you continue to mess with it and express " milk" ( or whatever it may be) out of it , then they continue on.
This is not what you said. This may be what you meant to say, but it is not what you said.
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If she was bloating would it not be out to the side instead of downward? Maybe her extreme butt high growth spurt makes her belly look lower.
Is she still on regumate? Is there any chance that would
have an affect on the pee tests?
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Young pregnant heifers can get mastitis without their udders EVER having been touched by a human. Here’s another clue, cows udders are handled 2 to 3 (or possibly more if in a robot barn) times per day. The number of times an udder is handled has little to do with development of mastitis.
Sometimes, yes. Many times, absolutely not. Mastitis is often due to one of a number of ubiquitous organisms that becomes opportunistic for reasons of one stress or another. And, sadly, it seems to be the ubiquitous cases that are hardest to deal with and sometimes impossible to control. We have great drugs for and success with the environmental crap that may work its way up a teat. Opportunistic garbage, originating in the animal, not quite so much.
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As to this, it takes dedicated milking to stimulate/initiate continued production. A couple of squeezes for a pH test ain’t gonna do it.
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Usually it is when they are nursed on by other youngsters( or persistent nursers they are housed with) and then they freshen with Mastitis or are stimulated to produce " something" and mastitis flares.
I do not want to derail this topic any longer. Mastitis can happen so just tread carefully.
No. No, it is not. In a dairy barn, the LAST thing that is ever allowed is cattle suckling each other.
It is more likely to be caused by inflammation/edema where circulation goes to hell, and those ubiquitous organisms get the go ahead to have a field day.
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Question:
How far along would this mare be, if she was in foal?
Would the foal be developed enough to see it moving?
This is what the OP said above:
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that has nothing to do with expressing a couple of drops of fluid/milk to see how close the is to foaling.
Seriously - Equine Reproduction, one of the leading repro clinics in the world, does this, teaches this, recommends this as part of helping MOs get a better handle on when their mare might foal. They have probably personally done this with more mares than everyone on this thread combined. Probably more than everyone who’s ever commended in this Horse Care forum combined.
If anyone would have a problem with the risk of mastitis, it would be them.
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I thought the same thing! A remarkable change for the better, and so fast.
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Well I imagine that they are turned out and not in tie stalls from day 1. Most dairy farmer I know don’t sit and watch their cows all day long. Nobody tells the calves it is taboo either.
Thank you so much! She’s been a very satisfying project.
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Ok, here’s some education.
Point 1. Dairy farmers and their staff have their eyes on cattle whether literally standing around for a few minutes guzzling a much needed coffee in the actual barn or sitting in the barn office keeping an eye on the cameras for as many hours in the day as possible because eyes on animals means problems are caught sooner and are therefore often cheaper to deal with.
Point 2. As soon as it is safe (health/immunity-wise) to house young calves together, they are absolutely given free run of a safe group enclosure. THAT is when the serious watching begins because no matter how careful you’ve been raising them, there is always going to be some smartass that laughs at your immunization schedule and your tested colostrum and your vet’s years of learning and practice and gets sick. JUST as important, that is also the time that they get watched like a hawk in case one feels the need to suck on one its buddies. Immediately a plastic nose ring is fitted (they don’t hurt the calf - they are like fake clip-on earrings) that has point plastic spikes on the side facing away from the calf’s nose. The calf can eat and drink and carry on absolutely as normal, EXCEPT when it goes to suckle one of its buddies the buddy gets a little poke and says, “No way, mate. Bugger off!” and little suckler gets told this by every calf it attempts to suckle until it realizes nobody will allow it. Once the calf has lost the habit, the nose ring is removed and the habit is 99% permanently solved.
- On rare occasions that a young heifer gets turned in with a group of older cows and decides to give the whole suckling thing another go, she is immediately fitted with a spikey nose ring which is removed once her habit is broken.
These are realities of dairying. Anyone who dairy farms seriously and tries to tell you that they don’t keep an eye on their animals for as long as possible as often as possible is either a garbage dairy farmer or feeding you a line of the stuff that comes out of the back of their male calves.
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