Tink seems to doing just fine after the AI. Her coat is quickly growing back over the shaven area of her belly. The next milestone dates to look forward to are:
February 14 – Remove stitches
March 7 – Ultrasound exam to confirm pregnancy
April 4 – X-Ray to determine number of puppies
April 8 – Estimated whelping date
…P
Tink’s now home and seems fine after the AI. The image shown here was captured from the webcam on Thursday, 2/9. Clearly visible is the area shaven for the surgery and if you look closely the five stitches are also noticeable.
…P
Dr. Elam performed the AI on Tink, late last night. She is doing fine and I plan to bring her home Wednesday. After a little scare, in which her progesterone level dropped slightly with Saturday’s sample, the levels increased dramatically to 10.7 ng/ml with Mondays blood sample. Dr Elam estimates she ovulated on Sunday. Now, if everything goes well, puppies will be expected around April 8th. We will confirm a successful breeding around February 28th with an ultrasond examine.
…Peter
On Saturday, 2/4/06, I drove Tink to Dr. Elam’s Animal Hospital. We’ve tested her progesterone levels three time and it appear she ovulated on Fri evening. Her prime breeding window is Sunday Evening until Tuesday Evening. She will be artificially inseminated on Monday morning. I will pick her up and bring her home on Tuesday.
…P
I am starting to make plans to take Tink to the AI Vet in Richmond. I will drive her to Elam’s Animal Hospital on Wednesday afternoon and leave her there until the AI is complete. Dr. Nick recommended I bring her down early so he could test her progesterone levels as needed. This way he could perform the AI at the right time without me having to rush her there. I’m not crazy about leaving her, but I can see the logic in this approach. She could be spending 5-7 days away from home, so I’m packing her food and bed to take down.
Today has been the heaviest day of Estrus. During the day she spent a couple of hours playing outside, retrieving the Kong and we trained for about 45 mins on some blind marks. At night she is sleeping by 10pm. Her appetite has not diminished. She currently weighs about 56 lbs. I’m starting to feed her Innova EVO Dog, see http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=product-detail&pxsl=%2F%2Fproduct%5B@id%3D%271246%27%5D. Evo has been been given the WDJ’s top approved dog food recommendation and it now comes in can too. Her coat is looking great and she’s put on 1-2 lbs since last spring.
… Peter
Well today we confirmed that Tinks is definitly in heat. This morning we found a blood spot on the living room floor before going to work. Just to be on the safe side, I’ll mark the calendar as Jan 25 as the beginning date. The semen from Ferro arrived on Jan 12 and I drove it to the vet in Richmond on the 14th where it is in cyrogenic storage. Just in time by the looks of things. The estimated breeding date is Feb 7th, but we will start testing the progesterone levels on day 7 to confirm ovulation.
During the last few weeks, Tink has been acting moody around the house. Today she is starting to show physical signs of the next heat cycle starting. It’s been about 33 weeks since the last and she is starting to swell-up in the rear. It should be one or two days more discharge begins.
In this web log category, I will be recording the various events that take place during the breeding, whelping and puppy development regarding our first litter.