Hi Myra: The last extended chilled semen breeding I did resulted in 10 Bulldog puppies all live and well. Bulldog breeders have been doing AI's for years and years. We all know how to collect our dogs (even when I take mine to the vet he has me do the collection), many of us have our own microscopes for checking sperm and many of us do our own vaginal slides on the bitches. I think, even when you include the cost of the kit, which from ICSB has been around $35.00, and includes the extender and all the instructions, it is not much more than if you had shipped your bitch. There really is no magical thing about collecting the stud and pouring the semen into the extender, closing it, packing it and shipping it. Some people use UPS or some other overnight express to ship it but I always preferred having it put on an airplane, picking it up several hours later and using it immediately. If your slides, progesterone, LHS, or whatever else you are using is accurate, it should only take one breeding.
The fact that we may not be able to ship the bitches very easily anymore has to weigh in here as well. I do not normally ship my bitches at all. If they go someplace else to be bred I fly with them under the seat. So it would be a cost of my airline ticket + pet fee + whatever other costs are incurred while getting her bred. To me it is not a matter of how much it costs, it is a matter of getting my bitch to (what I consider) the "right" dog. I have had very good luck using ICSB for extended chilled semen. I think their extender is the best. I have not had very good luck with some of the other semen banks. As far as frozen goes, I do not like to have my bitches put under anesthetic and would only do that as in the case of the person who imported the frozen from Europe. I would be careful about automatically using an antibiotic on your bitch. Breeders used to do this a long time ago and after a time found that not only was it affecting any little "problem" a bitch might have had, it was also killing the good flora and fauna that you mentioned. Antibiotics are not all that selective in what they attack. Rather, if you are concerned, I would have cultures run to make sure there is no low grade infection or whatever else you are worried about. I think we sometimes get so paranoid about every little thing that could possibly happen that we tend to over medicate our dogs. It is not good for them and can cause problems later that may be irreversible. Carol williams ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 1999 by its original author.
