Cost of A.I.with frozen in your area - Page 1

Can anyone share with me the cost of breeding your bitch with frozen semen in your area of the country?  I checked my local vets in my area (near Boston) and they said $2500-4,000. Also, was the breeding successful? Pros and cons of frozen AI?

Thanks,

Sarah

Expensive, problematic, little to no results. After giving it some serious effort, the results do not warrant the effort. You can do an extensive experiment with your own group of about 14 dogs over a 4 year peroid at a cost of around 25K or so or you can learn from my experience. Natural or fresh is the ony way to go.

My vet (repro vet) has done 2 surgicals with frozen for me-one using semen from an outside stud & one using semen from my stud (stored at his clinic) with someone else's bitch.  Both were successful- 2 pups in one litter with the outside frozen that had never worked before (on a bitch that with live breeding had 10 pups) & 6 pups on the other litter with my male (this is typical for this bitch). 

Surgicall AI was $275, $15 or so for antibiotics, & how ever many progesteron tests needed at $97.50/each-1 bitch it was 2 or 3 & the other 4 or 5.

You also have to add in stud fee & if the semen has to be shipped it is around $500 & most storage facilities have a fee to pull it & ship also.  It is best to use frozen that has been used successfully before-my vet says there is some that for whatever reason never results in pregnancy, even though it looks good when thawed.  He also says the best bet for success is with proven bitches 3-5 years old. 

I am in Mississippi & am super lucky I have an outstanding (repro) vet where I live!!

Candace

Thank you both for your replies.

Cbaird...I can't believe your vet charges those prices when my vet charges $2500+!!! That's just incredible! That's Boston for you...argh.

Dog1- I had very good luck doing AI with my horses but I did chilled and fresh..never frozen.

Sarah

Not to derail the discussion, but how long does sperm survive in the prostate, post neutering?  Also are there any vets that do In Vitro (IVF) with dogs, at a reasonable cost these days?  Anyone ever looked into DNA banking (used for cloning at a later time), it seems that skin cells can now be turned in sperm or eggs.