This will be the first year I am going to try this. Any advice? Brand to buy? What to look for? TYIA!
pool spa strips are all you need, can’t remember the brand I use but it has koi fish on the label. 1cc milk to 6 cc water. 6.2 ph and super high calcium = go time
I bought some saliva Ph strips off of Amazon.com. They were VERY accurate and had more range than pool strips. They were cheap too.
How do the saliva strips work? What to look for? I think I may try both!
I think any pool strips work. This will tell you what you need:
http://www.miniatureventures.com/using_milk_test_strips.html
OK, this is going too sound dumb but, the saliva strips are used the same way with the milk and not moisture from the mouth, correct?
1 part milk to 3 parts distilled water - dip the strip in, wait two minutes and compare the colors, although when we were getting close the colors popped up pretty fast.
And the pool strips work the exact same way but the saliva strips had a wider range. Many pool strips don’t have a wide enough range.
I got the predict a foal kit for Christmas last year, and I thought it would be a joke. I tested my mares milk and it said to try again in 48 hours, 48 hours later, all five squares were red in like 5 seconds… Had a foal less than 12 hrs later! I also bought ph q tip looking things from cvs and tested the same sample because I thought it was hokum and the change was instant. It was probably lucky timing for me but really fun that it worked!
The thing is, the predict a foal kit is $35. Pool strips are about $6. And, I agree, when I used them, they were right on.
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The predict a foal strips are not very accurate. I have had mares sit on 5 squares for days. They just test calcium, not PH. Because of that, they are not nearly as accurate as either the PH strips or the Chemetrics Foal Watch kit. The PH strips win the whole competition, because they are cheap, easy to use and accurate.
I tried the pool strip tests with my mare this past summer. She tested as if she had another few weeks to go…no where near the levels to predict a foal in the next few days. She delivered the morning after I tested. However, this mare had NO colostrum or milk to test, almost no liquid could be expressed . I might add she was almost 12 1/2 months before she delivered (I was there at insemination so know absolutely when she was bred). Her first foal and it was a textbook perfect foaling despite the longish gestation. Both mare and foal are doing great. Just saying…don’t always trust these strips especially if it appears your mare is not bagging up or producing anything to test. And when the experts say there is no “standard” gestation period for a mare…they were darn right!
[QUOTE=cherham;7342785]
I I might add she was almost 12 1/2 months before she delivered (I was there at insemination so know absolutely when she was bred). Her first foal and it was a textbook perfect foaling despite the longish gestation. ![/QUOTE]
I had the same long gestation period on a mare last year. Boy was he big!
I think with any of the tests there are going to be the odd horses that they don’t work on. Short of staring at the mares 24-7 or a physical alarm, all we can do is hope that what has worked for lots of others works for us.
IMHO, the pH strips are more effective for a lot less money. I did two mares last year and they were both accurate within 48 hours using a $6 thing of pool strips. The “foaling predictor kits” we used to use at the farm where I used to work often left us in anticipation for DAYS and cost $40-$50!
Also a note re pool pH strips versus the human pH strips - Typically the max pH shown on the pool strips is below what it what it will actually climb to when the mare is about to foal. The personal health ones go much higher. I don’t remember what the “magic number” was but when we hit it, 36 hours later we always had a foal.
The closer to foaling they get, the pH drops, calcium climbs.
The higher the calcium, the faster the pH will drop. So the pH may stay high for long, but as soon as the calcium goes up to it’s highest the pH will drop fast
I have used the predict-a-foal kit as well as pool strips, and I have used both at the same time just to see if they said the same thing. I prefer the pool strips with Hardness and pH together. Ca levels can linger for days, and days, and days. However, when the Ca stays elevated AND the pH drops you have a pretty good chance of foaling within 12 hrs.
Having said that, I am not brave enough to rely on one type of monitoring and use cameras and a foal alert system as well. The milk testing helps me narrow down how much sleep I need to lose and when to have the TV tuned to stall cameras 24/7.
Dusting cobwebs out of my brain… That’s right, the pH gets lower.
Here are our test strips from last year:
April 20, 2013 - 12 hours before foaling
April 19, 2013- 36 hours before foaling
April 10, 2013 - 36 hours before foaling
This is three tests from two different mares. One mare (the first two tests shown) foaled at 11pm on 4/20. The other mare foaled at about 1 am on 4/12. You can see how different the pH is from 36 hours to day of foaling.
There is a sticky with milk testing 101 and lots of other milk testing FAQ threads that I found helpful when I started testing.
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?140453-Milk-Testing-101-(with-pH-!-)
My pool strips test pH and calcium (called hardness on some strips) using 1cc milk and 6cc distilled water. I have found the pH to be a better indicator of impending foaling than calcium. I test once a day (in the am) until I see a change in the pH or a change in bag, attitude, or other indication from the mare. After that I test 2x day, am/pm. I have found the strips to be very accurate.
I purchased strips this year that are called “smart strips”. You take a pic of the strip with your smartphone and it analyzes the strip and gives you the results. In past years I have found myself obsessing over the shade of yellow the square was. I found these to be very accurate and took the guessing out of the equation. This was especially helpful for me while testing multiple mares.
Smart Strips: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Aqua-Chem-Smart-Strips-Scanner-Kit/26774601
Good luck with them, I bet you’ll be hooked! 
This year I got the strips from Mare Stare (Maybe Baby). They test pH and they do NOT require the milk to be diluted. Added them to the pool strips that we still had on hand. I think I’ll use the Maybe Baby ones alone this year.
If ph on pool strip is 8.4 and calcium 1000 how long till foaling?
