Artificial Insemination Question

[Shai]

Originally Posted by CharlieDog

Um, WHAT?

Temporary. Not staying. :P

[PWCorgi]

Originally Posted by Shai

Temporary. Not staying. :P

[Linds]

Thanks for all the info guys! I'll pass it along!

I really was asking for a friend in Australia but I'm glad Sara asked because that really does open some possible doors since solids are harder to come by!

[Aleron]

Originally Posted by Lyzelle

Why is surgery required for AI in dogs? Also, is there no sure-fire way to KNOW that the bitch is ovulating consistently with decent follicles? Jesus. Exactly how primitive IS dog breeding?

Generally speaking, freezing/cooling and shipping semen shouldn't be all that hard. At all.

Just doing an AI sort of takes the "primitive" out of the equation. It isn't uncommon for dogs who had no issues getting pregnant with natural breedings needing surgical AIs. I think Shai explained it pretty well.

Another consideration is the cost involved. AIs done involving shipped semen and repro vets, surgical or not are pricey. There's a lot invested in getting puppies from the breeding and surgical gives better odds. Also because of the spacing between heat cycles, if a breeding fails you could be looking at 6-12 months before another attempt can be made. If you have a bitch who only comes in season once a year and you try your first breeding at say, 3 and get no puppies she's 4 before the next attempt and 5 by the next one after that. There's nothing wrong with wanting to tip the odds in your favor with these sorts of things,although I think natural is always preferable if possible especially for a first breeding.

[OutlineACDs]

Had a friend who did an AI on her bitch, I was the "helper", she had never done an AI before, and while I don't have much experience I had more than she did. She got two shipments of chilled semen, delivered a couple days apart. She had done progesterone testing prior, with our regular vet to determine ovulation.

With a little instruction from the stud dog owner, a pipette, syringe, and 30 minutes of our time we did two AI's at her house. She ended up with a pretty good sized litter for a sheltie, (7) puppies.

No surgery involved.

Edited to add: The price wasn't really much more than a normal stud fee. I think its around $200 per shipment of semen, that depends on the stud dog owner and the kit, of course, if it doesn't take then your out that money, but if a natural breeding doesn't take you're usually out "breeding fees" or boarding/travel expenses anyway.

[Romy]

Originally Posted by Shai

My understanding is that with dogs the mechanics of the tie in a live cover breeding also helps move the sperm into the uterus where it fertilizes the eggs. In an AI breeding there is no tie obviously, so that mechanism is somewhat compromised. In addition frozen sperm has pretty short life once thawed so the timetable to get it to the uterus before it's no longer viable is truncated...to get around that they do the surgery to deposit the frozen/thawed sperm directly in the uterus.

For side-by-side AIs, breeders may collect from the male and deposit directly into the female's vaginal opening and simulate a tie...a person I know did that method because she has a breed for whom natural breeding is difficult. Right or wrong that's another way to go about it, but it's apparently less effective even with fresh sperm.

Not a repro vet and much more experienced with horse AI than dogs so take that as you will.

Yeah, frozen/thawed semen is only viable for a few hours so it has to be timed perfectly. I was really surprised when they did the surgical procedure because I thought they'd go in the "back door".

Instead they made a small incision in her abdomen, and pulled out each uterine horn individually. Then the vet used a syringe to inject it directly into the uterine horns and massaged the semen up toward the fallopian tubes.

She said that they have to time it exactly which is why they do all the progesterone tests. There's about a half hour window when the eggs are nice and ripe sitting in the uterus to be fertilized, and that's when they do the surgery. With a natural breeding the semen would be waiting there ahead of time and is viable for several days to a couple weeks, but AI for frozen semen has to get it in there before the semen dies and when the eggs are ripe. She said that the eggs were being fertilized at the exact moment she was doing the uterine massage. It was fascinating.

Another reason I've seen people use fresh collected, even when the stud is on site, is to prevent spread of STDs.