Breeding Adventures

There's good news and bad here at the kennel.  First the good: the breeding of Wild Apple Jack and Indian Creek Triple Rail took place yesterday via artificial insemination (more on that later).  the bad news ins the Ovuplant did not work with Veronica and we took it out yesterday.

The vet I use for all my Repro stuff is Dr. Cindy Pratt at Lamoille Valley Veterinary Services in Hyde Park, VT.  She is 100 miles away but the nearest vet that specializes in canine theriogenology.  I found her a few years ago when I was looking for someone to collect and ship chilled semen from Jack.  Cindy spends about a third of her practice time dealing with reproductive issues and is very knowledgeable.  My local "country" vet had never heard of Ovuplant when I took trip in to him on Tuesday to draw blood for a progesterone test.

So, the story with Veronica is as follows.  Cindy implanted the Ovuplant on November 29th and about a week later Veronica started to spot then stopped and nothing else happened.  She's kenneled between two male Plott hounds at Tommy's and neither one showed any interest in her.  So, yesterday morning I took her up to Cindy to have her cytology checked and she was obviously not in heat.  The cost for no puppies was $153.25 to have the Ovuplant inserted and $141.30 to have it removed.  Add to that 1/5th of the cost for five doses of Ovuplant (I had to order the entire five pack from Australia as it is no longer available here).  The five doses of Ovuplant were $185.  So the cost for no puppies was $331.55 plus 400 miles to make two trips to the Vets.  A reasonable gamble considering the interest in the breeding of LJ and Veronica.  But it's still a loss.

In talking to Cindy and Tommy about Veronica our best conclusion is she has what Cindy refers to as a "silent heat" where she goes through her normal cycle but it is not strong enough for even the males in the kennel to notice.  If that is the case she was probably in earlier this fall which negated the ability of the Ovuplant to bring her in again.  To be effective there needs to be at least four months from the end of the last heat before you do the implant.  Earlier than that and you run the risk of creating a heat cycle where there are no eggs available for ovulation and fertilization.

Things were also not easy with Trip.  We did not do the Ovuplant with her as she was just coming into heat at the end of November when we had planned to do the Ovuplant.  In fact, It was Cindy who noticed the onset of heat as she was getting ready to do the insertion.  Over the next 2 1/2 weeks she seemed to be progressing normally and was still spotting as of 12/16 but showed no interest in standing for Jack.  On Tuesday I ran over to the local vet for a progesterone test but he failed to see the urgency of getting me the numbers and I didn't get them until after I got back from Cindy's with Veronica Friday morning.  The test showed she was starting to spike with a number of 8.88 on Tuesday.  When I called Cindy with the number and the fact that she still wouldn't stand, we decided to use AI.  I turned around and drove the 100 miles back to Hyde Park and the deed was done without any problems.  Trips bill to date is $71 for the original testing to determine her heat status on Nov 29th.  $132.00 for the progesterone test and $150.00 for the AI.  So at this point we have $353 in vet bills for Trip but a very high probability that everything is a go for the AI breeding and the estimating whelping date is February 18th to 20th.

Now, I just need to get Wild Apple Annie over here from Shady Hills Kennel in Prattsburgh, NY and we'll get some LJ puppies as well.  If things don't work out with Annie, Lon Meneer over in Maine has Scooter, Annie's littermate (they're both younger full sister's to Jack and currently four) who we may also breed to LJ.