Pregnant Mare Owners

Tia

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With all this nervous waiting we are all doing, a thought has just occurred to me. Do you have the milk-test over there? It is a test where you take a small amount of milk from the mare every day and it will tell you when the foal will be born within 24 hours. Maybe you could ask your vet for the papers to test?
 
You need distilled water and litmus papers - so it is a very cheap and apparently highly reliable test. Ask your vet - he may be able to give you the papers.
 
Never heard of that one before.
I'll just hang around until Lola is ready, and still miss it. Presumably, having been a broody all her life she will know what to do with it, I'm a little more relaxed about her than if it was a maiden I had waiting to pop.
 
I read about that the other day in a book i've just bought (From Foal to Full Grown).
Oooh im gonna do that! Thanks Tia
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I've never done it to be honest. But I have some reputable breeders horses living here with me and I was chatting to one of the owners yesterday and she told me that all you have to do is milk a couple of CC's from the mare each day at the same time, put the droplets in a tube of distilled water and pop your litmus paper in. She guarantees that it will NEVER fail.

Unfortunately Cloud is due after Becki's horse so I can't tell her what my findings are......but I can tell you
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Yep my vet did say something about the test. But what with the placentitis and her running milk for days, we never actually did it. She swears by it though x
 
Keep us posted Tia, if you do try this .... might save me many uncomfortable nights sleeping in a caravan at the stables when we get close to Beth giving birth! (She is so enormous already that I'm really nervous that either it will be an impossibly large foal, or that she has somehow managed to hide the fact that she is carrying twins from the scanner)
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I wasn't NEARLY this nervous before giving birth to my daughter - how sad is that?!
 
When is your mare due Rufus?

Mine is due in 58 days (not that I am counting or anything
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) and she isn't huge at all. She is nicely rounded but I doubt anyone would leap out and say "Oh my - she is heavily pregnant"
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Becki's horse is huge though - well the tummy is anyhow.
 
Excellent! Another vote of confidence. I am going to get organised to doing this test as I really really want to be with my little girl and video the birth.
 
i saw something on the net the other day can't remember site
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but thought it looked really good and they sell you the kit for bout £60 which is much cheper than foaling alarm... will try to find it again willpost if i do
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To be honest if it is the kit I am thinking of, then it is a total rip-off and I would never pay £60 for it.
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I think different tests have got mixed up here - the Predictafoal is the litmus test one that's £20, and FoalWatch is the titret one which is £50-60. The general consensus seems to be the titrets are more accurate and give you reading which will tell you it's not going to happen in the next 24 hours as well as a more accurate reading about when it is going to happen. I use the titrets and think they're extremely good value for money (20 tests in a box). Each to their own on this... much like everything else horsey
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I think different tests have got mixed up here

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I think you are absolutely right, LOL!! I've never used or seen either of them so am waffling on about what someone else told me. Then when I started to look I found the Titrets - they do seem the best. Thank you for the vote of confidence with them....I thought they looked too good to pass by too.
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