USE OF THE FOALWATCH
AND SOFCHEK
TESTS FOR EVALUATION OF PRE-FOALING MILK CALCIUM CONTENT
AND THE APPROACHING READINESS FOR BIRTH IN THE MARE.
William B. Ley
Interferences or Complications
Some mares are resentful of being milked, especially if they are maiden (first-time foaling) mares. Standing to the left side of the mare and facing her tail, press your shoulder firmly against her chest, reach with your right hand first to her belly near the umbilicus and rub gently and progressively toward the udder. Several attempts may need to be made to reassure the mare that you mean no harm. Make this a pleasurable experience for the mare, offer her some grain while collecting the sample. The more comfortable she is with you collecting her milk, the easier it will be for her to accept her new foal attempting the same procedure.
It is not unusual for maiden mares to fail to develop much of an udder prior to foaling. In which case your ability to obtain a sample for testing will be greatly hampered. The 'first milk' (colostrum) is typically a very thick, honey-colored, sticky secretion. This is an appropriate sample to recover as calcium levels will be detectable just as with more 'normal' appearing milk.
Mares that have been exposed to Fescue grass (specifically the Kentucky 31 variety) pastures contaminated by the fungus Acremonium coephenophialum during the last 60-90 days of gestation may suffer from the toxins that are produced within the grass. Such mares very often fail to undergo normal udder development prior to foaling (and often even after), a problem referred to as agalactia. Without a sample for testing, this kit will be of little help to your management of such mares. Consult your veterinarian for prevention of this problem.
Since calcium contributes to the hardness of water, all precaution should be used to rinse all re-usable items exceptionally well with distilled water prior to drying. Use only distilled water (supplied or purchased from local stores) for all sample dilutions in the testing procedure.
Obtaining the small sample volume that is required for testing, on a once to twice daily basis, for the 10 to 14 days of average duration prior to foaling, does not deprive the foal of any significant amount of colostrum (or its antibody content) once it is born and begins to nurse. Many foals have been monitored during the research and development of this procedure, and in no case was a failure of passive transfer (inadequate colostrum consumption and passing of antibodies from the mare's milk to the foal) attributable to the sampling of pre-foaling mammary secretions. In like manner, the quality of the mare's colostrum (its content of antibodies) is not affected. Mares that are prone to 'running milk' prior to foaling will do so whether they have been sampled for testing or not. Such mares are still at risk of losing too much colostrum prior to foaling and should be managed accordingly regardless of testing. Consult your veterinarian if you are not familiar with this problem.
The procedure of pre-foaling mammary secretion sampling slightly increases the risk of mastitis development (infection of the milk and mammary tissue or udder). This is true for any animal when milking is performed manually, especially if precautions are not taken to wipe the skin and teat surfaces clean, and dry them, prior to obtaining the sample. If you note clumps of debris, or pink to red discoloration in the milk sample obtained from your mare, this may indicate an infection and you should consult your veterinarian for proper treatment.
from the desk of:
William B. Ley, DVM, MS
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