# Freezing a dogs seman



## 2170 (Jan 10, 2008)

Has anyone ever done this or has anyone had experience with this process. I am very interested in continuing the lines of my dog in case soemthing happens to him. any info would be greatly apprecited.


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## tracey schneider (May 7, 2008)

Collect/ freeze is the easist part... Its timing the insemenation. And getting a litter that is the hard part.
What kind of info are you looking for exactly?
T


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## 2170 (Jan 10, 2008)

There is a possibility I might be heading overseas. I have a dog that is amazing and if anything happenes to him I dont want his lines to end. I would like to continiue them, so I am trying to figure out how to go about keeping his semen, how many viles should I keep, does a normal freezer work, do a vet have to do it or is their a specialist. I know nothing at all about this type of thing


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## tracey schneider (May 7, 2008)

Well if you want the semen to be viable then no I wouldn't do iit myself or use my own freezer ;-)

Not all vets collect. For me personally I prefer someone who specializes in it when it comes to my dogs repo parts. It will go smoothly, they usually have a teaser bitch on hand, all the supplies (some will require you bring your own), nice big screen for semen evaluation, and gentle hands . Some will have.a freezer on site or you can use synbiotics. Cost is 80 a year to store. I would go to synbiotics.com (going on memory for that web addy) as they also have a list of vets they recommend.

Now the tricky part in your situation...your going over seas. I would suggest you decide first where you are most likely to be using the semen in your current location or overseas. Is the dog going with you? Shipping semen is expensive and shipping overseas is stupid expensive. Also the country it may be going to will have restrictions. Contact their "usda" deptartment and also synbiotics to find out what needs to happen prior to collection. For instance I am currently doing a collect/freeze to ship to the UK. They are rabies free so we have to have a microchip prior to collection and six months of rabies free amongst other things prior to shipping.
Its quite a hassel to dot yor "I's" and cross your "t's" and UK is easy from my understanding.

Hope that helps,
T


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## tracey schneider (May 7, 2008)

Forgot...on the viles... After they collect they will do a teset freeze and thaw and evaluate the mobility / quality of the sperm after a freeze. At that point and based on the evaluation of the "collection" they will let you know how many viles they would recommend per breeding and where you stand.

T


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## James Downey (Oct 27, 2008)

I just dealt with doing a Frozen semen surgical AI. I did an ton of research. For small animals it looks like a company called Synbiotics has the "gold standard" on freezing and insemination. So any Vet that uses thier methods, tests and equipment is suppose to be the Shit. My vet is on the AVMA board for reproduction in small animals (latin word is something like trigeneologly or something...). That was my source of information. 

first the collection, This needs to be done by a repo vet, not everything that comes out is needed. they need quick access to cryogenic freezing...I mean like on site. The longer outside of the body before freezing the less viable it is. The semen will already be compromised some what from the freezing alone. The semen is stored in pellets (which have a higher motility rate) or straws (which have a higher pregnancy rate...if you can believe that.) The semen has to be stored in a cryogenic tank. Most vets charge around 80.00 a year some that's per breeding, others it's not, to store. Now if you want to ship, thier are paperwork fees, and deposits for the shipping container. doing a frozen AI gets expensive fast. So, think about it. Also you have to be in protocol with AKC (if you care about that) if you want the pups to be registered...This needs to be researched before you do anything. So some steps have to be completed before collection. this cost money also...kit and paper work with AKC but you can do it at home. 

Now the AI. I would just like you to have the most information, this also will let you know how much semen you need. for a frozen surgical AI....you will need 4 straws. They can only insemiate once since the dog has to be knocked out and operated on. a Trans cervical (camera and tube passed the cervix to deposit) the best is 2 breedings....one in the morn, one in the eve. My vet said due to the low life limit of frozen semen...surgical gives you the best chance of pregnancy. but with the most risks. And it's the most expensive. one vet I called said 200.00 for th eoperation. this was the cheapest. I went with most expensive vet, 600.00 for the op. Now that's just the op. The dog needs to get progesterone tests to time ovulation. which are around 50.00 a pop. I did about 6. once the progesterone starts making it's initial rise. they test for LH spike. This is only found for 24 hours. So they have to test everyday. I had to do 3. 65.00 a pop. So you can see. An AI of frozen semen is not cheap. I am not trying to deter you. I am just stating that when you decide to use the semen you need to have cash on hand to go. Do not forgo the ovulation timing test....ESPECIALLY THE LH...not all vets do LH. With progesterone only you are guessing. With LH you know when to drop the semen. With frozen semen the life span is so short that if your wrong, you will waster your money. with fresh or evens chilled the semen can live for days....sometimes in excess of a week...so if you put into early...you have a huge margin of error. Not with frozen, if your not right. You will have an empty litter.


I will say this...shipping the semen was not that bad in price. We had it shipped from germany to san diego, then san diego to Lansing, Mi....it was however a pain in the ass.

And I will never ever again do this.....we could have flown thier with the bitch...done a natural....then had a vacation with all the money spent.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

James Downey said:


> I just dealt with doing a Frozen semen surgical AI. I did an ton of research. For small animals it looks like a company called Synbiotics has the "gold standard" on freezing and insemination. So any Vet that uses thier methods, tests and equipment is suppose to be the Shit. My vet is on the AVMA board for reproduction in small animals (latin word is something like *trigeneologly* or something...). That was my source of information.


Pretty close, it's theriogenology.  I had my dog collected before I neutered him so I would have the option of breeding without the hassle of having an intact male. I used a member of the International Canine Semen Bank. She's not a board certified theriogenologist, but 85% of her work is canine and feline repro. She uses the pellet method instead of the straw method (I'll go into some more detail below). Here's the list for the ICSB:

http://www.ik9sb.com/Franchise.asp

If you have a vet school nearby, I would also suggest checking if they have a theriogenologist on staff. We have two at our vet school and they do everything from bulls and dogs to llamas and research animals. We even have a theriogenologist from Springfield, Missouri who is like the world expert on elephant therio. :mrgreen: Here's the list of members of the American College of Veterinary Theriogenology (it will say on their profile if they are a board certified diplomate).

http://www.theriogenology.org/search.cfm

If you can't find one in your area, vets with a special interest in therio but who aren't board certified can be found here:

http://www.therio.org/search.cfm



> first the collection, This needs to be done by a repo vet, not everything that comes out is needed. they need quick access to cryogenic freezing...I mean like on site. The longer outside of the body before freezing the less viable it is. The semen will already be compromised some what from the freezing alone. The semen is stored in pellets (which have a higher motility rate) or straws (which have a higher pregnancy rate...if you can believe that.) The semen has to be stored in a cryogenic tank. Most vets charge around 80.00 a year some that's per breeding, others it's not, to store. Now if you want to ship, thier are paperwork fees, and deposits for the shipping container. doing a frozen AI gets expensive fast. So, think about it. Also you have to be in protocol with AKC (if you care about that) if you want the pups to be registered...This needs to be researched before you do anything. So some steps have to be completed before collection. this cost money also...kit and paper work with AKC but you can do it at home.


They will also likely require a negative brucellosis test as well at the time of breeding. More in depth on the pellets vs. straws thing...the pellets are the centrifuged cells that are flash frozen on a bed of dry ice, then collected in small vials to be stored on liquid nitrogen. The straws are similar to semen straws used in bull and stallion collections, in which the semen has extender media added then placed in plastic straws, frozen, and are cut open to be placed in an insemination gun. Supposedly one bonus for the pellet vs the straw is that the pellet, being as though the shape is a sphere instead of in a cylinder, there are less cells that suffer damage from the cold. Preparation of the pellets are also more labor intensive for the vet, which is why most large animal people just use straws. The pellets or straws are stored in a tank with liquid nitrogen and are checked regularly for levels. If the electricity goes out or whatever, they still should be fine, but they won't guarantee that the cells will still be viable for anything really.



> Now the AI. I would just like you to have the most information, this also will let you know how much semen you need. for a frozen surgical AI....you will need 4 straws. They can only insemiate once since the dog has to be knocked out and operated on. a Trans cervical (camera and tube passed the cervix to deposit) the best is 2 breedings....one in the morn, one in the eve. My vet said due to the low life limit of frozen semen...surgical gives you the best chance of pregnancy. but with the most risks. And it's the most expensive. one vet I called said 200.00 for th eoperation. this was the cheapest. I went with most expensive vet, 600.00 for the op. Now that's just the op. The dog needs to get progesterone tests to time ovulation. which are around 50.00 a pop. I did about 6. once the progesterone starts making it's initial rise. they test for LH spike. This is only found for 24 hours. So they have to test everyday. I had to do 3. 65.00 a pop. So you can see. An AI of frozen semen is not cheap. I am not trying to deter you. I am just stating that when you decide to use the semen you need to have cash on hand to go. Do not forgo the ovulation timing test....ESPECIALLY THE LH...not all vets do LH. With progesterone only you are guessing. With LH you know when to drop the semen. With frozen semen the life span is so short that if your wrong, you will waster your money. with fresh or evens chilled the semen can live for days....sometimes in excess of a week...so if you put into early...you have a huge margin of error. Not with frozen, if your not right. You will have an empty litter.



Yeah, it's probably easiest if you have a vet who can run in house progesterone levels. That way they can also probably board the bitch and sample her periodically for the optimum time, as James said, you have only about a 12 hour window to do the surgical AI. If they can run an in house series, it will likely be less expensive that way as well. Fresh semen can last 4-7 days in the bitch's tract, which is why doing tons of repeat breedings "just in case" is likely thought to be unnecessary in natural cover.



> I will say this...shipping the semen was not that bad in price. We had it shipped from germany to san diego, then san diego to Lansing, Mi....it was however a pain in the ass.
> 
> And I will never ever again do this.....we could have flown thier with the bitch...done a natural....then had a vacation with all the money spent.


Probably true. :lol: Frozen insemination is not for the weak of heart or wallet.


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## 2170 (Jan 10, 2008)

Thank you all for the responces. I moight be going to Afghan or Iraq and I will be bringing my own dog, Of course if something happens to the both of us hen I wont be able to breed but god for bid something happens to him during explosive detection I dont want to come back to the US with knowing I will never have a chance to keep his lines going, He is a very powerfull MAL the most powerfull I have ever handled and is a very serious dog and would like to breed with him


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## tracey schneider (May 7, 2008)

How much did u pay for the intl shipping? I was quoted 600 from us to uk that is stupid exp to me lol. 

My vet gave us a a 2-3 straws...3 being generous per breeding based on the eval after freeze and thaw (very good eval) and she also recommended the surgical over the camera... Her cost being one reason.

At least you won't have to do intl shipping total pia esp going into some of the island/ non-rabies countries.

T


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## Gerry Grimwood (Apr 2, 2007)

Eric FAvetta said:


> Has anyone ever done this or has anyone had experience with this process. I am very interested in continuing the lines of my dog in case soemthing happens to him. any info would be greatly apprecited.


 
Ya know..I'm not a genius but I can spell every part of a females anatomy perfectly...why ? because I care :lol:

It's SEMEN you hockey puck.


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## Candy Eggert (Oct 28, 2008)

Gerry Grimwood said:


> Ya know..I'm not a genius but I can spell every part of a females anatomy perfectly...why ? because I care :lol:
> 
> It's SEMEN you hockey puck.


The Master of Subtlety :lol::lol:


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