Surgical Artificial Insemination w/Frozen Semen - Page 1

Hello everyone.

There is a phenominal dog that I'm really wanting to breed with my female, but by the time she will be ready, he already be sent back home (overseas), but the breeder has offered for me to use frozen semen.

I am new to breeding and learning.  I have only bred my female naturally and she's had 2 very large litters.  There is a vet here in town that deals with a lot of breeders and now does the Surgical Artificial Inseminations there, or I'm thinking since I'm going to be already putting a lot of money into this....maybe I should find a canine reproductive specialist to use and go to for this.  And I'm hoping to keep 1-2 females for myself. 

But I'm hoping to hear from the breeders who have done this and either have or haven't been sucessful.  And how many puppies?  I have my heart set on this male, he compliments my female in every way and is an absolute outstanding dog!! 

Thank you in advance!

I have not been successful with frozen. It's an expensive process and has numerous pitfalls outside just the insemination. There's testing that can be off a few days, shipping that can't occur because the shipping capsule hasn't been returned. The vet that didn't thaw it out correctly, the oops, I thought the sperm was stored here, you name it, the list goes on.

Just send your female to the male. It's better in the long run.

I was privy to a situation that happened at my vet's office where a St. Bernard female was surgically inseminated with the thawed frozen issue of a male from Switzerland.  The result was 10 puppies!!!  Amazing.  But I'm sure this is not the usual result.  However, it can happen.  The most important factors are:  1.  the viability of the stud's semen --does it freeze and survive well, given the obvious important parameters of freezing quickly to the appropriate temp and then shipping in the best manner as quickly as possible, etc. , 2.  The reproductive receptivity and viability of the female, in that she must be in the ideal phase of her breeding cycle and capable of conceiving.  As Dog 1 mentioned, many things can go wrong. 

What we have in this immediate area, that is very useful, is a technologically advanced semen storage facility for bovines, equines and dogs.  Without it, it is unlikely that many of the high quality breedings that occur in this area (among warmblood horses, dairy cattle and those in the dog community that choose to avail themselves of this service), could ever have taken place and been successful.  A facility such as this is an invaluable service.

Alli, I think you live near me. PM me, I'm curious.

  I would highly suggest you have the male's live motile tested from frozen before you buy the tube.  Animals react differently to their sperm being frozen - for some it doesnt matter, and for others it creates a mess.  A friend of mine shipped semen from accross the country and when thawed it had 14% live motile (which is terrible!)  Now sometimes that can be caused by handler error because in reality the extending and freezing/thawing process is exact...but, man, that's some bad semen.

  What they'll do during a test is look at the motility under a microscope (make sure the sperm is moving forward and not around in little squiggles), then look at the number that are moving and the number that are morphilogically correct.  Most of the major facilities have readers to look at this.

  I havent done it personally with dogs - but in Virginia Tech AI's the majority of their commercial stock - Horses, Cows, and Pigs...and I've seen some really go results from them....and I also know the Repro Specialist at the VMRCVM - they do freeze semen and hold it there and insemminate.  Now with my friend - she had the procedure done at Tech - and I think that was just a case of a male who didh't have great sperm...which is why it's so important to get it checked.

~Cate

For the money you are going to have in it, I would use a Reproductive specialist.

Where are you located?

If you use a specialist (board cert., not just a vet that does it) things work out very good. You have a LOT of expense when doing this, on top of the fee from the breeder. The vet that is doing to surgery should have a frozen storage container at his/her office so the frozen semen could be stored there at the office way before it's time for the implant- that way you wouldn't have to worry about if Fed EX can get it there the right date( weekend/holiday) . You have to do progesterone timing through a lab that gets you results the next day ( Antech is the only one that I know of) and a specialist that know how to interrupts the numbers correctly. You also have to have a motility/morphology done ( should be done already) on the sperm both pre and post thaw to insure that the sperm looks good and is viable after freezing and thawing.

We have amazing sucess where I work, she is a board cert. theriogenologist, but only when things are done correctly and 'her way" - meaning by the book to a T. With that being said , the expense is high, but usually worth it to get a litter from a male that you can not do a natural breeding with. Ask the stud owner if they have had a litter from a frozen AI- from the same freezing as the straws you are going to use. Most males have 3-6 frozen straws/vials from a collection, so chances are that if there has been a litter from a frozen implant that was from the same collection as what you want to use, you will also have a litter IF everything else is in place.

Most important thing is to always have a plan B male as back up. Nature has a way of messing things up- storm comes through, power goes out- and poof no surgery.

I live in Evansville, Indiana.

Do you know of reproduction specialists in this area?   Someone mentinoned Pee Wee Valley in KY, but I cant find the info.  Thank you for the information everyone.  This male has never been collected, but will before he returns to his home overseas.  Ceph, thank you so much for the information, I will be sure to look into that before buying the tube.  The actual stud fee is $1000 plus all the other costs of shipping semen, progesterone testing, surgical implantation, etc....I agree I need to go to an actual specialist! 

I recommend Whelpwise services..

http://www.whelpwise.com/

Give Karen a call during the day in the week. She has a wonderful service, and can give you excellent advice/recommendations on vets who do this service best.

Also recommend using the service to monitor your bitch after she's bred.. If you spend that much money on all the breeding fees, you might as well make sure everything goes OK!

Good luck!

Hi

To any who may be interested, There is frozen Semen in the USA from

Zasko vom Prielberg  Sch111 (V) KKL1 (V) Hips A Normal,  ED Normal DNA

He came over to the USA  with his Belgian  Owner trainer a few weeks ago

You can see the Dog on the Data base or See him Working on the owners website, anyone interested to see him working mail me and i will give you the website

Steve