Reproductive Health – Finding problems “after the fact”

by  Pilar Kuhn

November is the official month of giving thanks. My husband and I thankfully welcomed two new Scottie puppies into the world last week. As we tallied up the costs in getting these babies into the world, we said “thanks” for many things. At the top of our list was the relationship we have with the stud dog’s owners. They knew how important this litter would be to us and, after we did not get our bitch pregnant earlier in the year, they sent their dog to our house for breeding. We are forever grateful because we know now, after the fact, that we would have never had puppies if we had taken the same “plan of attack” as our first attempt.

In January, we endured extreme frustrations, costs, and challenges in getting fresh chilled semen shipped from Sweden in time to breed our bitch. Everything both parties did was in total collaboration and our efforts miraculously worked with regards to timing, but what concerned us when the collections arrived for insemination was the quality. Although it takes just a few out of millions, this dog’s sperm in the collections we received did not do the trick. So my husband and I thought over the circumstances and could not come up with any reason why our bitch didn’t get pregnant except for the quality of the collections. During our waiting period between cycles, the same stud dog sired a couple litters, so we knew the dog could get the job done. The owners, witnessing the same results, decided they would ship their dog to us to use.

I cannot tell a lie. We were nervous. The efforts from all involved on both sides of the pond got the dog safely to our house. It was no small feat and he did make it to us just in time. Ever hopeful this attempt would produce offspring, we wanted to have the dog checked just to make sure this was all worth the effort. What we discovered is that the dog was not 100% healthy reproductively speaking. I remember the disheartened feeling I had upon learning the news that his sperm count was low and there might be a bigger issue going on with his reproductive system. How would his owners have known he had any issues at all? The dog sired multiple litters. He was healthy in all outward appearances. The only way to know he had any reproductive issues would have been to have a total testing of semen, not just an immediate evaluation after collecting to include on the export and insemination documentation. So after nine months, two expensive efforts in hopes of getting puppies sired by this dog, and two years of planning and finalizing agreements with the owners, our attempt could have been a total waste. Our only saving grace? Knowing that, overseas, the dog had successfully sired puppies. Maybe this time would work for us because he was at our house to do his job. And, by the way, he did it very well.

The day before he was supposed to ship home, the owners contacted us regarding his reproductive health and possible treatments. As we all found out in January, reproductive visits and treatments overseas are extremely expensive. They rarely, if ever, test semen on European dogs because it is four to five times more expensive than what most vets here in the U.S. charge. After lengthy discussions about what was best for the dog, we worked out another arrangement to keep him here and try and help him recover and improve his reproductive system.

We’re still waiting for that 90-day time period to pass to find out if, what we’ve been doing based on veterinary recommendation, has succeeded. I’m thankful that we found out the dog had some issues. I’m thankful the owners trusted us enough to ship us their dog for breeding. And ultimately, I’m thankful that we finally got our puppies and the dog has had the best care and treatment possible. When he gets home, he should be ready to go back to work.

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Posted by admin on Nov 29 2012. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.