What is the crusty plug on the end of the nipples? Started out a brownish and is now a light yellowish?
Jos
Posted on Friday, March 14, 2003 - 09:41 pm:
This is known as "waxing".
It is not a reliable indicator that your mare is about to foal!!! That is an error made by many. Some mares wax up as much as 4 weeks prior to foaling, while others may not wax up at all!
It may be of use to predict foaling in the individual mare if one has had her foal previously and noted at what stage the waxing appear, as she may repeat the behaviour with the next foal, but other than that, it has no use as a predictor.
Sandy
Posted on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 12:57 pm:
What "waxing" means is that the mare's udder is beginning to secrete milk from the nipples and it is drying at the ends to form a little wax-like plug. Now, don't let the word plug concern you. It will not hurt anything if that gets knocked off. It will probably be back within a couple of hours. It is not plugging up the udder so that milk will not drip out. If you have ever read anything about waxing, there are a lot of articles and such that will tell you that once a mare begins to wax she will foal in 24 to 48 hours. That is definitely not true. Out of 3 mares that I had due last year, only one waxed prior to foaling, and she stayed waxed for about a week before she foaled.
My mare is at 321 days today. She has a nice udder building that she started in mid-April, but so far there does not seem to be any milk. The teats are starting to fill out more now and this morning there was a bit stuff on the end of one teat that looked like dried honey. Does this mean there should now be milk? So far there has been nothing that I can express. Is she holding out on me?
The last time I had a mare foal I didn't know about checking the milk, but when she waxed she foaled within 24 hours. Hers was different though, very heavy looking stuff. I thought it looked like ointment on the end of her teats.
I really don't like hearing about mares going 375 days. I don't think I could hold out that long. My last mare approached a year and I thought that was horrible. I had been watching her days and days. I might lose my mind if I had to wait more than a year. Here's hoping this mare and foal are ready sooner.
I have a mare that is now 397 days. We had the vet out at day 366 and she said the foal is really big and wanted to induce at day 373. We chickened out and did not have this procedure done. We heard from lots of other horse owners that this is not a safe procedure. Anyways, her bag is really full with white stuff on the udder but, her teets do not look filled out and, she has had only runny clear yellow liquid for about 45 days when we have checked her. Is she getting close? We really do not know what to do about the inducing part. We are going to try to hold out until May 16th before we induce. When the vet checked the mare she said she could feel the foals rump. Any opinions on this mare? We are really concerned.
From what I have been told , inducing horses is not a real good thing to do. I know too, as a human that when your induced you sometimes have some trouble with labor progressing and then it ends up being long and hard-- is this the same in horses ?. I would also have to question the fact if the rump is presenting itself first , then there is trouble. Is a ultrasound approatiate for this, to determine for sure which end is coming first ??? Just throwing out more questions to be considered-I don't have the right answer, maybe someone else would.
windy f (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted From: 65.1.116.136
Posted on Thursday, May 05, 2005 - 10:26 pm:
are you sure about the breeding date? because if the foals not ready it's not ready. i wouldn't induce
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