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Kindly contributed by Penny
Steward,
Siesta Quarter Horses, Oreana, Idaho
Note:
this personal advice was originally offered to members of the QH-L (an e-mail group interested in Quarter Horses) and is
reprinted here for your information and enjoyment with
permission from the author. This procedure, in conjunction
with your usual pre-foaling preparations, may help predict
the onset of foaling. The author and Premier Publishing shall
have neither liability nor responsibility with respect to any
loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or
indirectly by this information.
Equipment:
What you need is Water
Hardness test strips that are used to check well water. In
our area they are available from Nurenberg Scientific Supply
in Portland for about $40 for 100 strips. They can be ordered
by phone at (503) 246-8297, and they will ship them out
quickly. This outfit is a scientific supply house where my
husband gets class materials for his high school biology
classes ... I had to track them down, and that was the
biggest challenge. Then you go to Payless and get a gallon of
Distilled water for 99 cents ... that is the other
"magic ingredient."
The other equipment
you need is little plastic disposable cups, a clean (not
sterile) 3cc and 6 cc syringe.
Procedure:
Milk the mare
into one cup (you only need 1 cc -- a few squirts)
Measure 6 cc of
distilled water into a second cup.
In the small
syringe, draw up 1 cc of milk and squirt it into the
cup of water. FLUSH the syringe in the distilled
water at least once. This is such a small sample that
it can affect the test if you leave milk in the
syringe.
Dip the strip,
which which has four color blocks on it, and time
exactly 1 minute and read the results.
Analysis:
1-2 blocks
changed -- give the old girl a pat and go to bed. You
are a long way from foaling. The milk will be clear
sticky fluid or slightly cloudy, and probably hard to
get. Test every other day.
3 blocks changed
-- At this point, the mare may look like she is
ready, but not tonight. Check the mare before you go
to bed if it makes you feel better, but it is highly
unlikely that anything will happen. The milk will be
cloudy, and may almost be white. Test every day, same
time each day.
3 blocks change
right away, 4th changing if strip is left out after 1
minute -- Not yet. Continue as above...
4 blocks changed
WITHIN 60 SECONDS -- Put on the coffee pot, get out a
good book and get your foaling kit, vet phone #,
etc., in order. You are within 48 hours of foaling,
probably closer to 24 hrs or less. The milk may be
white (in which case you probably don't need to test,
but I do anyway).
Cautions:
Measure
precisely. The sample dilution is critical. Use the
syringes, and flush the milk as mentioned above.
Test at room
temperature. In a really cold barn, the speed with
which the chemical reaction occurs can be slowed up.
Keep the test
strips in the frig, per the manufacturers directions.
They can be used from one year to the next, but keep
them sealed and refrigerated.
Keep the
distilled water clean. Pour some out of the gallon
into a smaller bottle for use, and close up the rest.
When foaling season is over, use the left-over in
your coffee pot for a really GOOD cup of coffee...
Observations:
This test has saved me
many nights in the barn, especially once I figured out that
the 3-going-to-4 reading isn't valid. I have had several
friends and others try this, and it has worked for most of
them (some who didn't measure precisely, were in very cold
areas, and in one case got old strips got false lows. Another
person used boiled water, which was sterile, but not
distilled. She got a false 4 on a mare barely bagged -- which
told her she had chemicals in the well water). However, I
have used it for about 5 years, and NEVER had it fail me. I
have had many mares (about 1/3) who didn't read the
"Thou shalt wax" chapter in the foaling manual, and
maiden mares are likely to do anything they darn well please.
In only one case have
I heard of the test going to 4 and the mare not foaling
within the 48 hours. However, we all know mares can decide to
hold on if something doesn't suit them, including weather,
environment, etc. I had one mare hold off a night because I
put a newcomer in the stall next to her, and the newcomer
could look into her stall. I covered the wall with a blanket,
and she went ahead and foaled.
This isn't voodoo --
the test detects a rise in magnesium and calcium that occurs
in the milk just prior to foaling. My vet had me give him the
directions and he has passed this along to many of his other
clients, with excellent results.
Good luck, everyone.
Penny Steward
Siesta Quarter Horses
Dallas, Oregon
Related
Links:
Free Mare
Gestation & Breeding Chart
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