My understanding of mycoplasma from the repro seminars I've been to and reading I've done is this. Mycoplasma itself is very common and all by itself does not cause reproduction problems. It should not be considered the actual *cause* of repro problems. What is wrong is that if there is an unusually high amount of mycoplasma found in a dog or bitch that seems to be causing repro problems, there is more than likely some underlying problem that caused it to get that way--probably an immune-related problem of some sort--usually temporary that is the actual cause of the repro problems. I think that some vets believe the repro problems that seem to be related to a high amount of mycoplasma will resolve in many if not most dogs within a period of time whether they are treated or not so they are not sure they even need to be treated at all--or whether the treatment is what actually worked.
I've never had repro problems or an unusually high amount of mycoplasma found in any of my dogs yet. If I did I think I would think holistically before resorting to antibiotics. I would tweak the diet, add supplements, try to reduce stress and see if that would work. I would probably separate the dogs who seem to be having problems from the others temporarily as maybe the ones with the problem are perceiving the environment as more stressful than the others do for some reason or another. In other words, I would try to strengthen the dogs' immune systems by reducing stress and improving diet and let their own bodies do the work to regain reproductive health. If it didn't work, I would seriously consider not keeping that dog in my breeding program unless there was some extremely good reason to do so. Laura Lang ========================================================= "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 2002 by its original author.
