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Posted on Sunday, Jul 16, 2000 - 11:11 pm:

I have been trying to breed three mares AI with cooled semen who are cycling at the exact same time. Their follicles are at 4.6 cm or better when they are bred the first time. The vet then gave a shot of HCG and then bred them again 12 hours later. This is the third breeding for two of the mares and second for one. They all have been cultured and one was treated for four days prior to last breeding. No other problems have been detected. Help

Posted on Friday, Jul 21, 2000 - 2:05 am:

Dear Elsie,

Were you using the same stallion for all three mares? What was the motility on the sperm after it was thawed? The mare that was treated prior to insemination, did she have an infection? Have any or all of the mares been successfully bred in the past?

Sorry for all the questions!
Nancy

Posted on Monday, May 21, 2001 - 4:16 pm:

I have learned a lot about AI since I wrote the note in July 2000. I have studied up and hired an equine specialist that seems to be on top of everything for the 2001 season.

After attempting AI on five mares in 2000 and only getting 1 mare bred (she breeds just by waving at the stud) and accumulating almost $3,000 in vet bills, I did some homework. Three mares cycled at almost the same time and the vet ordered cooled semen to arrive at a 3.5 cm folicle. The semen was shipped in one container for all three mares. He opened the container and left the stuff sitting under bright lights while he bred the mares. He didn't ultrasound the mares before actual breeding and didn't ultrasound to see of they ovulated. Everything was done on his 8 hour day and based on his calculations from ultrasound results done before ordering the semen. He said the semen quality was poor. He said he didn't do extra ultrasounds because he was saving me money. One mare settled on first breeding, Three mares didn't settle after 3 breedings each and one of those was bred natural cover to my young stallion and settled the first time. It was too late in the season and I opted not to continue trying on the other two and the fifth mare was AI'd once and didn't settle. The vet cultered the four mares and infused all of them and had all kinds of opinions.

This year I had a complete pre breeding exam done on the two open mares and a cystology done. They are clean and cycling. We breed the mare with the foal on her foal heat with a 4.6 cm folicle and the two open mares had 4.1 and 4.5 folicles when they were checked. One mare will foal in July so we will breed her on foal heat if she is okay to breed without problems.

I gues what I am trying to say is if you don't have a really good vet to do AI you are just throwing your money away and not getting your mares bred.
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