11-1-98

Contents: Cooled Semen secrets/Weekly progesterone story/DNA reminder

Cooled Semen: Jane O'Grady called to report her Labrador bitch, Rocheby
Coral Bay had six pups by NON SURGICAL cooled semen insemination. That
good news balanced the horror story of getting cooled semen from Canada
into our country. It seems authorities in Canada insisted the cooled
semen be "sealed" by a Federal Canadian Veterinarian before being
shipped. And then Customs held the package. Amazingly, I get frozen
semen in the ominous looking liquid nitrogen shipping tanks delivered to
my door from Australia and Norway without any problem. Please take note
those of you contemplating importing cooled semen: In spite of
incredible diligence on the owners' part, customs is sometimes very hard
to understand. I suspect, the Canadians were going under regulations
for exporting bull semen... Oh, well, I will find out tomorrow. It is
certainly maddening to think of that semen sitting in a warehouse
someplace.

I had an interesting call from a breeder who has sent out cooled semen
2-3 times a week for the past 18 months and never had a litter! He was
starting to believe that the extenders differ. He had even switched
from one company's extender to milk, a decision I am sure motivated by
sheer despair. Yes, extenders differ and also, the collector must be
willing to CAREFULLY follow instructions.

Kim Lasley, Great Pyrenees breeder and judge, who has had frozen and
cooled semen litters, eyes widened as I opened the orange top tube which
the collecting vet had sent the cooled semen. An orange top tube meant
the vet had NOT USED THE BLUE TOP TUBES WE HAVE IN OUR KITS. I said a
silent prayer and put a drop under the scope. Motility, YES! Kim, who
has stood with me looking at the monitor screen MANY times breathed a
sigh of relief. Years ago we bought orange top tubes and found that
they compromised semen quality. The first clue that the tubes may cause
problems was the chemical odor released when you unscrewed the tube.
Obviously these tubes are not included in our kits.
Whenever I examine cooled semen that has bent tails, broken tails,
sluggish motiltiy and the collecting vet reports no such abnormalities
at collection, I can usually predict the cause: the collector used a
latex collection cone instead of the sterile poly collection bag we
include in the kit! Latex toxicity has always been a problem for the
bovine and equine artficial insemination industry and the latex
collection cones have been unreliable for the past several years.

So one of our secrets for successful cooled semen litters is no more
mysterious or proprietary than getting the collecting vet to use the
well researched and proven components we send in our kits!!!!!


DNA REMINDER: If you are going to a Specialty, get every dog possible
DNA tested because the savings is enormous : $10.00 versus $40.00.


PROGESTERONE STORY OF THE WEEK: Debi Morrow arrived with her Briard
bitch progesterone tested by her Arizona vet. We confirmed with our hi
tech test and the bitch was ready to breed three days and go
home!!!This is much different from Debbi's last Briard bitch visit. Debi
sent her mother over here with an untested bitch and her mother had to
stay for almost a week before the bitch was ready to breed. So this trip
was much faster and less expensive and less anxiety driven.


Best to everyone,

Carol