Breeding Suggestions

[cristy]

I am looking for any insight on fertility problems.

I started breeding my stallion, who is 17 years old and has not been bred for 4 or 5 years.

We are pasture breeding and the actual act is going fine but no one is settling. As far as I know he has had no previous problems.

My vet was not much help, and for where I am it is difficult and expensive to have his sperm anayized, so I would like to leave this as last resort.

If it was just 1 mare I would think it was the mare but so far it has been 3 mares and I have 3 more to check next week.

thanks

[appyday]

Actually if you can find a mare just bred and get some "drippings" you can look at it youself for mobility with a standard microscope..

Or just get some and run to the vet to look at it even a tech could tell you if you have wigglies I would assume..

[cristy]

thanks, that never crossed my mind!

[appyday]

thanks, that never crossed my mind!

I'm kinda back woods and that would be my first step...

or just hand breed a mare and catch some after he is done..I know with Vence I could have a look if I needed too..usually easy enough to get your hand on "some"

[Terry Wallace]

Cristy... horses are not prolific breeders. It may be the mares, it may be the stud...(see below) ...but I'd start with the stud, have him collected, and make sure he is not infecting mares, that he has viable semen at this time, and go from there.

The older they get, the less proficient they get..this goes for both mares & studs... Since you have 6 mares in question...I'd eliminate the stud first, if the other three mares are NOT in foal..as it would truly point toward him as being the possible problem.

If the three mares are in foal...then you know the horse has viable semen, in that case... I'd have each mare checked via ultrasound, and uterine biopsies IF indicated.

Yep..its not "cheap" breeding horses! Ultrasounds here are $49.00, but collection & analysis is $150.00...

[cristy]

I wish is was that cheap here! I have to trailer him 4 hours to get to the nearest vet who does sperm analysis and then it costs $350 for the collection and analysis.

I think I will try to look at it myself first. The mares are all relatively young (under 10 yrs) I was hoping that maybe if he uses it a little that his count would go back up. :smile:

[Terry Wallace]

4 hours...oh my gosh!

Yes, he very well could have his count come up "with use".....especially if he is well-endowed in the "nether regions" twin foal factories!

[appyday]

I think I will try to look at it myself first. The mares are all relatively young (under 10 yrs) I was hoping that maybe if he uses it a little that his count would go back up. :smile:


:PICS

[Abejita]

being you have not bred him for 3-4 years there is a chance his first breeding especially was mostly Junk..dead sperm..jell..This could easily cause infections ..If you cant check his motility..could your vet do a uterine culture on the mares?or even one or two if not all of them It would rule out the mares being infected.And if they are the you are going to have to look at studly..It would be so much easier if you had a good vet near.The 350..is that just for a collection and look at count and motility or do they do a whole morphology on the semen?

[LynnG]

There really are just too many factors even to consider. Infection would be a good place to start. If he has an infection and passed it to all the mares, or if one mare had an infection, gave it to the stallion who then passed it on.

I like to collect my own stallion, that way I can analyze each semen collection, make a record of it, for comparison sake, etc. I get to check each time under the microscope. Alot of factors can be spermicidal: temperatures...too hot, too cold, light, bacterial environment, equipment needs to be non-spermicidal, gel, etc. It would be good to go to some horse breeding supply and vet repro sites and do some research..many of them have very useful articles.

[SandyMM]

For not much more than the $350 vet charge, you can take a weekend seminar including 'wet lab' that teaches you how to collect and check your own stallion. You would still need some equipment, but if you're going to be breeding 6 mares - you need to either have the stallion and/or the mares checked. $350 is a very small expense relative to losing an entire breeding season with 6 mares.

[Carol Nelson]

Oh I wish you were closer, I'd do it for you for free...we have a little computer type gizmo that tells you the semen motility, extender to use...etc. etc. etc.
First try calling some bigger breeders around your area. I'll bet some would do it for you for little or nothing and I'll bet they'd be more than willing to help you with any questions concerning either your stallion or your mares. If we can have such equipment so can they...it's really not all that expensive.
As someone said above...the first ejaculate probably wasn't that potent although a lot of stallions just stand around and masturbate anyway, whether they're breeding or not.
A culture on your stallion wouldn't be that expensive...but I don't necessarily think he's passing an infection...he just may have a low sperm count. But 17 is not that old for a stallion.
Best is of course, for you to be able to look at it yourself. You could "ground collect" your stallion and take a look at it under the microscope. But learn what you should be looking for...when I first looked at a live specimen...it wasn't the easiest thing to see what was moving and what wasn't. :smile:

www.equine-reproduction.com/articles

Great site...lot's of information!

[SandyMM]

Carol - I've seen a couple of those 'computer gizmos' advertised ... Which one do you use and where did you get it? Thanks...

[appyday]

Carol - I've seen a couple of those 'computer gizmos' advertised ... Which one do you use and where did you get it? Thanks...

Sounds pretty neat...

[Carol Nelson]

http://exodusbreeders.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=EBS&Category_Code=SC

Third down on the list, the Next Generation Quick Check - a semen evaluation system. This thing is pretty cool.
Now I did not pay that for it...the woman who ran our former breeding barn went out of the breeding business so she sold me hers.
It comes with a disc that you insert into your CD-Rom and it downloads onto your home computer a program which you can keep spreadsheets detailing your stallion's motility changes.
Look for breeder's going out of business...a great way to get all kinds of supplies at lower costs. You should see the microscope we got from a breeder at the fraction of the new cost, and it has hardly been used. Plus they threw in extenders and pipettes and tubes, and a free hemocytometer (the little gridded glass that you divide the semen into parts on and count the swimmers)...all kinds of pluses.

[cowboy ed]

by all means get the stallion evaluted, but, another thing to consider, cristy, this is the worst time of year to breed horses. conditions just arent favorable. high temperatures can lower sperm counts.

if i were you, i would wait until fall to breed, or next spring.

[PattiB]

That one is even fancier than the one we used. Ours would give you a count and that was it, we used a microscope for motility. You can get a good microscope on ebay, doesn't have to be super fancy just good magnification.

[LynnG]

I got my microscope on ebay for under $200 with shipping...just have to know what you want, watch the auctions and bid when appropriate. I bid on a few I didn't get, before I got mine with the winning bid. I had a limit on what I wanted to spend. All in all I spent around $1200 for my initial AV, AI set-up and microscope and breeing supplies. Supplies...extender, sterile gloves, sterile syringes, baby bottle, sterile baby bottle liners, baby bottle adaptor, semen gel filters, rubber bands, sterile bandage, tail wrap bandage, breeding hobbles, etc.

This year I do the collecting and AI all by myself...so I get my ducks in a row with supplies, etc... last year I have a helper. I check each collection and make notes. These are for ai-ing my own mares. It puts you very in tune to what your stallion and mares are doing as per any repro work.

I also have started taking digital pics thru the microscope of each collection for the record, which shows a projected concentration, can check on morphology (size/shape), and a few digital movie clips to show motility patterns.

[Carol Nelson]

Actually the equine-reproduction site that I posted the link to is where I found the breeder who sold me the microscope...just had to drive a few miles up to Conroe.
(Sad story there...their champion QH stallion developed an enterolith in his gut and died on the operating table...so they quit breeding after losing him...just didn't feel like doing it anymore).