AI Revisited
Last week, I wrote a piece about Artificial Insemination (Click Here for original post). I have a little follow up to what we learned. The first thing I learned is if you are going to offer your dog at public stud, you had better be able to ship fresh chilled semen. The list of potential sires gets really small because folks are unwilling or unable to ship "baby-daddy in a can." If your boy isn't worth the time and effort to ship, maybe you need to figure out if you should just neuter him.
The second thing we learned is not only does the bitch owner (us in this case) need to have an outstanding veterinarian, the stud owner needs one to. And the relationship needs to be a long-standing one. In both cases we had fantastic veterinarians willing to work with us and the stud owners. We had awesome communication which is what you need to get your seed exactly when you need it. Both veterinarians had outside interests that made them top notch in reproduction. One veterinarian had been involved with the owner for a long time, the other was brought to the table late. It made a big difference.
Monte had gone through a pre-breeding screening. It looks like this:
I'm relatively sure that Dr. Pew mixed some of the semen with extender (maybe more than one) and checked it the next day. Dr. Lefrancois had no such opportunity. Although Stormy had been bred AI previously his semen arrived to us in poor shape. Semen retained in the refrigerator by Dr. Lefrancois was also struggling. We think it was the brand of "extender" used. Apparently some dogs do better with one brand or another. Anyway the result, even though everything was done correctly, was we got one batch that was very god and another that wasn't so good. An opportunity to experiment a little would have likely gotten a better result.
As I have said over and over, finding the right vet is very important. You can check out the Society for Theriogenology. I also stand even more firmly by my contention that bulldog breeders are ahead of the curve because they need so much reproductive help. Click here for a search of bulldog veterinarians.
Picking up at FedEx was a very smart move. We were able to get the package at 8:00. The ice packs were still icy in both cases. I highly recommend shipping for "hold at location" is the ultimate way to go.
Both packages were manufactured by an outfit called Minitub (Click here). The packaging was really tremendous. We own two of them and plan to keep using them for dogs, and maybe even horses and cows (loaned to friends).
The second thing we learned is not only does the bitch owner (us in this case) need to have an outstanding veterinarian, the stud owner needs one to. And the relationship needs to be a long-standing one. In both cases we had fantastic veterinarians willing to work with us and the stud owners. We had awesome communication which is what you need to get your seed exactly when you need it. Both veterinarians had outside interests that made them top notch in reproduction. One veterinarian had been involved with the owner for a long time, the other was brought to the table late. It made a big difference.
Monte had gone through a pre-breeding screening. It looks like this:
I'm relatively sure that Dr. Pew mixed some of the semen with extender (maybe more than one) and checked it the next day. Dr. Lefrancois had no such opportunity. Although Stormy had been bred AI previously his semen arrived to us in poor shape. Semen retained in the refrigerator by Dr. Lefrancois was also struggling. We think it was the brand of "extender" used. Apparently some dogs do better with one brand or another. Anyway the result, even though everything was done correctly, was we got one batch that was very god and another that wasn't so good. An opportunity to experiment a little would have likely gotten a better result.
As I have said over and over, finding the right vet is very important. You can check out the Society for Theriogenology. I also stand even more firmly by my contention that bulldog breeders are ahead of the curve because they need so much reproductive help. Click here for a search of bulldog veterinarians.
Picking up at FedEx was a very smart move. We were able to get the package at 8:00. The ice packs were still icy in both cases. I highly recommend shipping for "hold at location" is the ultimate way to go.
Both packages were manufactured by an outfit called Minitub (Click here). The packaging was really tremendous. We own two of them and plan to keep using them for dogs, and maybe even horses and cows (loaned to friends).
Posted by Todd Chrisman at April 13, 2009 
Categories: Veterinary, Stud Service, Brutus, Breeding Whelping Selling Pups
Categories: Veterinary, Stud Service, Brutus, Breeding Whelping Selling Pups
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