So……is this mare pregnant? UPDATE - vet says NO BABY

[lenapesadie]

I have two horses on the Balancer Gold. We like it.

[Warmblood1]

Wait, didn’t the vet palpate and ultrasound and determine the mare isn’t in foal? Something most certainly would show up on ultrasound at this point.

Also, saying that expressing for few drops of milk causes mastitis is total malarkey. I’m one of the ONLY breeders I know out of hundreds that doesn’t care much for pH strips as I’ve had them be wrong but it is pretty much standard for mare owners to express and use pH testing for foaling and that would NOT be standard if it did indeed cause mastitis.

[Warmblood1]

@candyappy

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.

I’m just wondering why you’d take it upon yourself to try to educate the masses. From what I can tell, you are misinformed and it makes me even question if you have a great deal of experience breeding horses.

[JB]

@IPEsq

enior Gold has soybean meal (and hulls and soybean oil–like the Perform).

You’re right about the Sr, I forgot about that. The Perform Gold only has hulls though, no SBM (I just double checked ).

[candyappy]

@JB

You seem to think the plug is there until the mare foals, and then the spigot is wide open. It doesn’t work like that. Expressing a few drops of milk from a mare already dripping milk isn’t a problem, and I have no idea how you’d introduce bacteria into the nipple that way.

The plug is there. Unless either a foal nurses, we manually milk her or the mare happens to drip milk on her own. One of my mares started dripping milk and foaled shortly after. I never did the tests myself. I knew the due dates, watched them for changes and lost a lot of sleep for weeks before or after that date.

I am not against people doing this at all but maybe just some more direction for those who may not know there is even a " slight risk"? Should they wear gloves or use a teat dip afterwards? Why is that so wrong?

I thought COTH was a place to educate those who may not know it all. Instead it is a place where someone with concerns or who may have other experiences can’t voice those without being insulted and bullied because of it.

Maybe what I am trying to say would be easier to get across if people didn’t immediately jump on everything I say . Ask someone to clarify instead of suddenly trying to keep up with repeated insults.

@Warmblood1

I’m just wondering why you’d take it upon yourself to try to educate the masses. From what I can tell, you are misinformed and it makes me even question if you have a great deal of experience breeding horses.

Thank you for proving my point and welcome to the party. COTH should be a place where someone can learn. OP didn’t even know if the mare was pregnant and already doing milk testing. That concerned me so I voiced my concerns and immediately was dumped upon.

Even if my concerns had an almost 0% of happening I still felt it important because while rare it can happen.

While no expert by any means, I have somehow been able to breed 3 of my mares and raise/ train 6 foals to adulthood without issues. Go figure.

[Warmblood1]

@candyappy

The plug is there. Unless either a foal nurses, we manually milk her or the mare happens to drip milk on her own. One of my mares started dripping milk and foaled shortly after. I never did the tests myself. I knew the due dates, watched them for changes and lost a lot of sleep for weeks before or after that date.

May I introduce to you pH testing. pH testing provides breeders an estimated due foaling date within a small window of time with pretty good accuracy and minimal risk.

Seriously though, this is why MOs test. We are already insane for breeding, weeks versus days of sleep loss and I wouldn’t be able to cope. I’ll be the first to say that pH tests are not 100 percent accurate but there are hundreds of breeders I personally know that use it with great results. If there were risks associated, both in literature or in practice, it simply wouldn’t be done. I don’t think anyone is trying to bully you, I’m certainly not, but stating inaccurate information over and over is just simply not helpful. I applaud you for breeding 3 mares, that is wonderful and an achievement, but there is much more extensive data that shows that the risks are minimal and that it is a safe practice.

[JB]

Of the relatively small % of mares who develop mastitis, MOST are in the drying up post-weaning period.

Hell, the risk of breeding a mare is probably a far bigger risk than causing mastitis because of expressing a drop of milk with clean hands a couple times a day for a week.

Mares have dripped milk for weeks before foaling. Or 12 hours. Guess whose pH will be more helpful?

Knowing a “due date” is nothing more than counting roughly 340 days from the confirmed date of conception. It’s your, and everyone else’s choice to lose sleep for 4+ weeks, or practice sanitary handling of an udder here and there to do some pH testing.

[SpicyPRE]

What is the latest with your mare?

[2bayboys]

Interestingly I’ve had her on a completely soy free diet for ten days, and she has stopped bagging up and looks a bit trimmer through the belly. Coincidence maybe but I’m going to stay soy free just in case.

A little sorry there’s no baby though!

[SpicyPRE]

Me too!