Fresh Chilled

[R-Heaton]

I was wondering if anybody here has any experience collecting and shipping fresh chilled semen without the assistance of a vet. I know of two different places where you can buy the kits which from what I have read and witnessed in person should be everything you need. The kit costs about $25 and as of late the vet is getting up around $185 for the same kit after there mark up and overhead. So to collect and ship across country twice is easily pushing that $600 mark. Now granted I wouldn't have the ability to check the semen for motility and such but using young dogs that have bred local and we know can produce this shouldn't be a concern.

The kits are basic,,,, gloves, ice pack of sorts, vial, extender, shipping pack.

[CherrystoneWeims]

Who is doing the insemination of the bitch? Some vets doing the insemination won't use the semen if it isn't accompanied by the forms from a vet who is doing the collection.

AKC also says that a vet must do the collection although I do know of quite a few Lab breeders who do the collection and insemination on their own and call it a "live" breeding.

Dont' go cheap with a collection kit! It can make or break a successful litter. I used the ICSB kit a few times but found that it didnt' ship well in hot weather. So I switched to Camelot Farms Collection kit and semen extender. It worked beautifully every time and the kits are reusable. You just have to buy more extender. The kit is more expensive and it costs more to ship but we got pups every time we did a shipment and the semen arrived in very good shape. The Labrador folks turned me on to this brand of kit. They use it to ship fresh chilled overseas (and that takes 2 days. it can't make it overnight!) with great success. I bought my own kits and have them on hand whenever someone wants to breed to my dog. I charge a deposit equal to the price of the kit and that gets refunded when I receive the kit back. I just take the kit along with the frozen extender that I keep in my freezer to the vets office when we have to do a collection.

Do you know how to collect a dog? It's not just je** him off and ship the semen.

[DGFavor]

Rich is an expert at the collection part. My dogs start howling just hearing his truck pull in!!

A few weeks ago, on a weekend, in a jam with a bitch that didn't want to stand, I made my own kit from work. I grabbed a 16cm long 3.5mm uncuffed pediatric endotracheal tube, a 30cc specimen cup, 12cc syringe, sterile gloves...and a Glad sandwich bag out of my pantry! I cut an angled corner off the sandwich bag, rubber banded the angled opening firm to the specimen cup. Collected the male thru the Zip Loc part of the bag being careful to collect all the semen fractions, pipetted it up into the ET tube and deposited it in the female just like we've done it at the vet many times. Mechanically went very smooth just like at the vet so we'll see...of course when the vet opened on Monday we ran in and had them do an AI as well but I'm pretty sure the one I did was a bullseye!!

Get your Favor Kits now! $24.95/kit or take advantage of this one time offer of two kits for $50.

[GsPJustin]

Get your Favor Kits now! $24.95/kit or take advantage of this one time offer of two kits for $50.

That's a one time offer of + a dime if you buy 2 at once folks! Step right up!

[R-Heaton]

Do you know how to collect a dog? It's not just je** him off and ship the semen

I'm all ears?

[R-Heaton]

Who is doing the insemination of the bitch? Some vets doing the insemination won't use the semen if it isn't accompanied by the forms from a vet who is doing the collection.

Thats interesting,,,, everytime we have done assistant AI the vet could care less who the dogs are. Today I took Doc's GSP in to be shipped across country and used my pointer bitch who was in season as a teaser and if I wouldn't have said something we would have a bunch of silver strike gsp's on the way,,, I didn't know it was the vets job to police what is being bred.

[Hotpepper]

If it is a known A I to AKC and for them to issue the paperwork of litter registration, they require the vet to sign off on it. I agree with Rich as the costs are rising and getting a little out of hand for the kits. The place I buy them from they are $75 and shipped to me overnite from Louisville and then my vet collects and, packs it and I ship it UPS or Fed-Ex overnite.

The 1st ones that I used were $30 bucks here.

Jerry

How come the bitch was "grumpy"

[BrettBryan]

Rich is an expert at the collection part. My dogs start howling just hearing his truck pull in!!

Doug, this one made me chuckle man. I got this picture in my mind of Rich pulling up in his truck and the dogs raising their head's up in the air and just cutting loose. That's funny. I don't care who you are.

[Wagonmaster]

Richy I don't know the AF rule, but I know the AKC rule very well. To be registered, there have to be the usual signatures of the owners of the sire and dam, but in addition, there has to be a declaration by the collecting vet and a declaration by the inseminating vet. It can be one and the same vet. The vets have to be certified. If you don't have declaration(s) from certified vet(s), you don't get a registration.

[CherrystoneWeims]

Do you know how to collect a dog? It's not just je** him off and ship the semen

I'm all ears?

Ummmmm It's a pretty graphic description as to where you hold the dog after he has started to ......... Might be a little pornographic in references.........

For shipping with extender you have to not collect the pre-ejaculate...

My stud NEVER humps on me. When I take out the collection sleeve he is ALL over me.

[R-Heaton]

John,,,, I wonder if assisted AI (male is collected and transfered into female) is different that using frozen,,,,, cause we have now done a fair amount and like I said the vet could care less. When I have collected dogs to be frozen of course that has alot of paperwork involved and registration info on it that follows the semen where ever it goes.

For shipping with extender you have to not collect the pre-ejaculate

I was aware of that and have watched them separate the prostatic fluid from the semen several times,, seems easy enough. Even watched them "spin" some prostatic fluid down and pull every bit of semen from that. One thing I didn't know was the semen typically is at the very end of the show,,,, we tried a dog a month ago and I thought it was over but the vet told me to keep the male's nose up there sniffing the females butt which would trigger his hormones to let go of the semen,,, up until that point it was all prostatic fluid,,, that was the one where it wasn't the greatest collection and we "spun" it down to get the most we could.

Thanks for the tip on the ICSB kits that was the one I had in mind using,,, could you send me some info on the one you prefer.

[Wagonmaster]

No, that is the AKC procedure for fresh extended Richy. That is how I did the breeding that produced Spot. Timmy was in Texas, he was collected down there, the semen had an extender added and it was shipped up here overnight. Twice.

[DGFavor]

Awwwright, how does the AKC even know how the insemination was performed - they're all live cover arent' they??

Call me simple, but ultimately, regarding the registries, it boils down to accurate, honest recording of the lineage of what hits the ground doesn't it? How they got there - live cover, vet transfer AI, chilled AI, frozen AI?? Who cares?? Any port in a storm!! Any landing ya' walk away from is a good landing!! Uhm, well, you get the point!

[CherrystoneWeims]

Here is the website for the chilled semen kit.

http://www.camelotfarms.com/

Doug, the vets have to be very careful about paperwork and the AKC. Most of the vets that I deal with who do collections and AI's are breeders themselves. The woman that I use in NC for surgical implants breeds Black and Tans. As I said though I know of quite a few Lab breeders who do the AI themselves and call it a live breeding.

I have had bitches here who would not stand even though progesterone levels said they were ready. I have collected my stud and inseminated them myself with pups resulting.