Yesterday it was a week since Mattie was here to visit Orin, and it's been a week of doubts and insecurities. Before I continue, let me explain that this will be a post about mating, ova and sperm, so if you feel uncomfortable with that sort of thing, then please bypass this post, no doubt there will be another photo post along soon.
As I've mentioned before, Mattie was not progesterone tested; Nicola chose to do cytology. "Vaginal cytology is a highly effective, cost-efficient, and non-invasive tool used to determine the optimal mating window in a bitch by assessing the cellular changes in the vagina caused by rising estrogen levels. It identifies when the bitch moves from proestrus (early heat) to estrus (the fertile period), generally by identifying a high percentage of "cornified" (flattened) epithelial cells." From what I understand, whilst cytology gives an idea that the bitches' season has progressed, it does not pin-point ovulation like progesterone testing does ... in these days of modern technology, rightly or wrongly, I'm really used to going with the "numbers!"
The matings last weekend were Ok, Orin was very keen, and we had two ties, but certainly on the first mating Mattie was tight, this causing some discomfort to Orin as they came apart. This could be because she wasn't quite ready, or simply because she was a "maiden" bitch. As none of us were free at the same time on Monday, we agreed to do a second mating on the Sunday evening. It was really down to Orin if this mating would go ahead, he was, I'm sure, a little sore but we had an equally successful mating and no issues as they came apart. I offered another mating on the Tuesday, but again with working commitments, a mutual time could not be arranged. Anyway, with the longevity of canine sperm, I kind of hoped the rest of her estrus would be covered.
On Wednesday night Nicola was at club with one of her Labradors. She was concerned by the attention that her own yellow Lab stud dog was still showing Mattie. I asked what days Mattie was on when she was mated .. Nicola thought 11 and 12. I felt uncomfortable with that and suggested she ring Suzanna (Who did the cytology) for advice, without the "numbers" I was lost. Anyway, when I got home, I double-checked my dates, considering "first blood" as day one Mattie was mated on day's 14 and 15 - well that immediately felt better to me. I messaged Nicola, she too had checked her dates and realised her mistake. By Saturday, day 21, things were quiet, so yeah, a 21-day season, unlike some of mine who take the piss. .jpg)
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Have we caught Mattie at the right time? Well we can only hope, in recent years, following progesterone testing, we have always mated our bitches shortly after ovulation. Taking into account that it takes about 48 hrs for the ova to become mature, so the sperm would get there as the ova were ready to be fertilised. I only started testing with Tali, before that, like many others, I counted days and observed my males, as well as the female in question. Did the females get pregnant? Well yeah, mostly they did. I mated them somewhere between day 10 and 12 and then 48 hrs later with great success. Knowing what I know now, I think I probably mated them all early, but better too early than too late. (Once the ova have aged and died - well it's just too late!) Canine sperm is very long-lived once inside the reproductive tract. I was always under the impression that the strongest sperm could live up to 5 days, so looking back, in the past with my own females anyway, the sperm was probably lying waiting for the ova to mature, and as I said my females got pregnant, with the smallest litter being 5. Chatting about this with Jane today, as we do (LOL) she said she was under the impression that canine sperm lived longer than human sperm, we googled and giggled. Yes, canine sperm lives an average of 5 to 7 days and human sperm lives an average of 3 - 5 days, but often less. What really shocked me was that The American KC had reported that fresh semen from natual matings could live 10 -11 days. This long viability enables fertilisation to occur days after mating, making it impossible to know the due date of litters. How many times did we hear, "Pups came early - pups came late!" Well no they didn't; it's 63 days + or - a day from ovulation and not mating, this means that progestorone testing also gives a much more accurate due date for the litter. (Incidentally, frozen-defrosted semen only survives 12 - 24 hrs in the reproductive tract, which gives much less chance of pregnancy without accurate testing.)
All we can do now is wait, but I do feel it hasn't done me any harm to remember how we used to breed ... and to realise that the longevity of canine sperm was probably why we were successful.
