Now, there, there is kits out there to help you, kind of
guide you in, but again I, you know I do, we do
use these on our farm and every farm I've been on
that, we, we do use these they're a good tool to use.
But do not become dependent on them.
The most important are those physical signs that, that they tell you.
But these do are available.
You can go online and, and they're relatively inexpensive.
And basically what it's looking at is, you can
see the days from foaling here in this chart.
And this is looking at calcium.
So right here the, sorry, I'll just make a little note there.
So, calcium, so as they get closer to parturition.
That calcium increases, and so these milk strip tests, actually as looking and
monitoring the, the calcium changes, that they go through with their milk.
So this is one of the commercial kits that, that we had and.
You're looking at these strips, these, these water hardness strips or
Baker Test Strips you'll, you'll see 'em, and they're change in colors.
So pink is no change in color here, and then as we
go down, we get more and more green, so with, with a five.
Stripping a five, this company is claiming that there's a 90% possibility
of that mare foaling within 12 hours, or jenny foaling within 12 hours.
My experience, you know, doing this anywhere from
a three to a five, you're in that zone.
Mares cant foal up here.
I will warn you there, sorry, that's a, that's a messy slide.
[LAUGH] Sorry, but they can, you know, not
even striping and foal that night, because they
can change relatively quickly, but generally, you know
a three or greater, they get pretty close.
I've had a mare strip a five for a numbers of days
and not foal out, and then all of the sudden, bam, foal out.
So, again, it's a tool, but that, those physical
signs are the ones that are really going to be telling.
Now, I already said the three stages
of parturition, so we're going to talk through 'em.
Alright, so stage one is the, really what we call the labor
stage, and, it can last anywhere from 45 minutes to six hours.
And, again, you remember these animals, you know, going back to behavior.
Is animal's hide pain really well.
So sometimes you can't, can't even tell that
a mare is in labor until her water breaks.
I mean that's, that's how you can kind of don't know sometimes.
They really surprise you, but, the best way to describe this phase is, this is
where the horses are, are acting colicky, so, if we go back to that colic lecture.
You know, they're sweating, they're nipping at the
sides, so you have, you know, bits of hair.
They, they, they defecate a little bit, they urinate a little bit.
They're a little restless.
You know, those are all the signs that, that
she may be in labor or getting close to parturition.