Waxed up but 22 days early!

T

TwigFairweather

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Hi all, Penny has been waxed up for two days and today is running milk. She is not due for another three weeks so this is all happening rather early. The problem with maidens is you just don't know whether this means that she will foal this week, or in three! Her tail muscles have relaxed, another sign of things progressing. I have had her cut today (she had a Caslick) poor love, I was worried that she may foal whilst still stitched. I stayed at the yard last night but I don't know whether I will tonight, depends on how she looks when she comes in. Ooooo what to do! Do we think she'll foal soon or will I be up for a month (like poor Becki and Hannah!)????
 
I think it's when they stitch the vagine shut (with a little hole left to urinate through), I think it's mainly done to stop mares sucking air in.

TF - Hope all turns okay with your mare!
 
They get un-stitched for covering/insemination and stitched back up again afterwards
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Oooo... it's all coming back to me now
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If she is running milk I would say she is certainly getting ready to foal down. Hannah ran milk about four days before she had Troy, but on the night before she had him it was running down her legs quite badly.
 
They will have stitched her up after covering... Stitching them shut help reduce the chance of the mare getting infected. It's only done on mares with poor vaginal confo as far as i know.
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Becki, I think I will be up with her again tonight then. She hasn't gone off her food at all yet. She has milk down her legs at the moment. Her caslick looks very sore so I hope she has chance to recover from that before she foals! I'm going to plait her tail later to keep it out of the way while it settles down.. I am now understanding how you were feeling! Any recent pics of Troy?
 
when i read your title
"waxed up but 22 days early"
i thought you had cleaned your tack too soon before a show!
what i read has been a real eye opener i knew nothing about this and we regularly had foals on my farm!
*shocked*
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and slightly queezy lol
 
She may be about to foal but some mares will run milk for 10 -14 days pre foaling. When she does foal it is really important that the foal is given hyperimmune plasma, as the mare will have run off her colostrum and the foal will not get enough antibodies otherwise. You could look into using milk calcium levels to predict when she will foal, as this is very accurate.
 
I think all mares are different, my mare foaled on sat night, checked her at 12:30 and she was munching hay, no waxing, no loosening of muscles, no sign she was going to have it, at 1:30 checked again and foal had arrived!!! He was 2 weeks early aswell!! Thankfully both are doing great. Good luck with your mare, if she's waxing it'll probably be sooner rather than later.
 
Thank you everyone. I think that I will stay with her from now on. The general opinion seems to be that foaling is imminent so on that note I think I might go and bring her in! It's funny you know, I've worked on studs and have handled literally hundreds of mares and foals and foaled quite a few, but now it's my own I'm going mad with it!!! LOL!
 
My mare was waxed up for 12 days before foaling and didnt leak any milk nor did she go off her food, we stayed up in shifts watching her on the webcam for these 12 nights and its a good job we did as she needed help with the delivery and she had the foal standing up! she was also a maiden mare, her foal (Nico was one month old this weekend). Better to be safe than sorry when it comes to foaling IMO. tell us more about the dam/sire etc and Good luck!
 
Penny is by Paris Lights (Alme) and the foal is by Utopian Oppossition (Fleetwater Oppossition). She was an intermediate eventer before getting an injury in the paddock. I think based on all advice I will stay with her from now on!
 
TBH sometimes they do that.If your mare runs too much milk she will run off all the colostorum. May be an idea if she carries on to have a subsitute, i had one who ran milk for 2 weeks so we gave that a bottle sub.She may on the otherhand just stop.
Think you are going to have to keep a close eye on her though.....sorry
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Hannah never went off her food at all near to foaling time, if anything she started eating it more quickly and finishing all of her haylage. On the morning she foaled she was eating haylage during labour once she had been induced... so I wouldn't rely on the eating as being too much of a sign.

How long has she been waxed up? Mares tend to run more milk if they have been over fed, but like I said Hannah ran milk just a few days before foaling, and the night she foaled it was literally dripping out of her udders at a fast rate. If your mare has it running down her legs then I would definitely stay with her tonight if she was mine (then again, I did stay over in a caravan for 15 nights so I might not be the best person to ask
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There were some new pictures of Troy on here somewhere in the picture gallery, but to wet your appetite...
16thMay22.jpg

16thMay23.jpg
 
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