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
Testing Procedure
Wipe the udder and teats with a clean, dry, soft paper towel prior to attempting to collect your sample. This reduces the amount of skin debris and dirt that might contaminate the sample, although such contamination will not alter the test result to any appreciable extent. This step is strongly recommended if the mare has been out in the weather and is wet. Your hands also should be clean and dry. One to five mL (cc) of mammary secretion should be obtained per mare. It should collected in a clean manner by gently stripping a small amount from each teat using thumb and index or middle finger into a clean plastic test tube, or other sampling cup. The cup or test tube can be re-used if it is carefully rinsed with distilled water and then dried between uses.
The sample should then be taken to a clean, dry and preferably warm area (for your comfort) for testing. Use the syringe supplied in the kit to draw-up exactly one mL (cc) of the sample. Be sure that you do not have any air bubbles in the syringe barrel or tip, if you do, hold the tip of the syringe up, gently flick the tip with your finger to dislodge bubbles allowing them to go towards the syringe tip. Expel them by depressing the plunger. Then draw more sample into the syringe exactly to the one mL (cc) mark. Place all the measured sample into the testing cup. Add exactly six mL (cc) of distilled water supplied in the kit. This dilution of the milk sample must be accurate.
from the desk of:
William B. Ley, DVM, MS
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