The boys are frantic, though Zeus, Ross and Loki have eaten. Poor Orin, who understands about it all is on hunger strike! So going on their behaviour and counting the days since they were split I'd say that the eggs are now mature and that we are reaching the crescendo. Hopefully things will now start to quieten as the ova are ageing - over the next couple of days the boys will start to settle and if things continue on this path they'll be back together by mid-week. Siska's season seems more "normal" than her mothers, Kaiah doesn't ovulate till about day 20 and her eggs stayed fertile for a very short time. When she was mated, she ovulated on the Saturday, was mated on the Sunday, and when I retested her on the Tuesday she was already going over. Having missed to Zalu I was so scared of missing Kaiah again, if it wasn't for progesterone testing we would have done. Fransisco wasn't enthusiastic to mate her on the Sunday, but he did. Joe expected him to be more enthusiastic on the Monday, but having mated her on the Sunday he said "no" on the Monday. So just for peace of mind I decided to test her on the Tuesday to see what her level was. By then her "eggs were mature but ageing, with decreased potential for fertilisation." So basically it had to be Sunday or Monday - and without the idexx test, well god knows what we would have done - I can't imagine life without Siska dramas now!
This morning Kaiah didn't eat. I checked the calendar, 6 weeks since her season. (Well since ovulation- ish) That concerned me, it's not normal for her not to eat and of course the instant worry is pyrometer, which is a life-threatening uterus infection. Adding insult to injury, the other bitches are sniffing around her and her vulva is slightly puffy. Hmmm - hopefully a bit of a phantom pregnancy - but if she shows any further signs of being off colour then I'll take her temperature and take it from there. As I've said before, I'd like to get her spayed but I want to make sure Siska can conceive first, hence moving everything ahead to hopefully Siska's next season. I can't afford to put all my eggs in one basket and spay Kaiah now, it would be foolish to do that, anything could go wrong ... it could be the wrong basket, or the basket could even break! lol. I know that if it did come to worst case scenario I have got Orin, maybe I'd have to beg, borrow or steal an Orin daughter. That of course would not be my wish, my wish is to carry on through the 9th generation of my bitch line.
