These are hypothetical questions, for now:

--Have you ever been requested by the stud dog owner to swab and/or place your bitch on a prophylactic course of antibiotics prior to mating?
--If you haven't, how would you react to this request...would you acept it, or reconsider your choice of stud dog?

Blimey!  Never been asked the question.  I don't use studs that have been used prolifically, or does that make a difference?   I'm leaning towards the side of re-thinking the stud.  Perhaps I'm being a bit naïve (and happy to stand corrected)  but my bitches won't have been intimate with every Tom, Dick or Harry.  But my proposed sire may have mated 8 bitches that week for all I know.

Swabbed yes and it's common because any bitch can have an infection even a maiden bitch and thus pass this on, so yes have swabbed because infections could leave to infertility anyway and the last thing you want it to pass it onto the male

Yes,only the once.

Didn't use this particular dog in the end but wasn't because of being asked to swab. As already said it quite common in studs that are used a lot..infections can cause infertility for both sexes.

It also depends how you feel giving your bitch antibiotics prophylactically which could be unnecessary.

If I really wanted to use a particular dog and the owner insisted I would probably have her swabbed at the beginning of her season. I was told by pat Harker that some infections only become active and traceable during a season so swabbing inbetween wouldn't give an accurate result.

I know someone who had a Champion stud dog which caught an infection from a bitch. He became infertile, he sired a couple of litters prior to this so we know he was fertile in the first place.

I'd reconsider, as all bitches and dogs have bacteria, as the area is not sterile, never designed to be.  Giving unnecessary antibiotics kills off good flora allowing pathogens reedy access, so more likely to cause a problem trying to be prevented.

We don't have the dangerous Canine Brucellosis in UK, I'd expect in the USA for both to be tested for that.

Males in our breed get so little use, usually with long gaps between matings that the chance of carrying something from bitch to bitch is infinitesimal.

There are some big earning dogs out there, their owners are bound to be careful.

Thanks to all of you for your input.

Some useful reading material on this subject--but if anyone has access to more recent research I would be very grateful for the link:

http://www.stca.biz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=521:canine-mycoplasma-ureaplasma-and-bacterial-infertility&catid=323:viruses-parasites-and-pathogens&Itemid=100

At one point, many owners of stud dogs requested a bitch be on a course of antibiotics.   I was asked once and my vet raised eyebrows saying WHY!!!    I conformed because I wanted the dog.   Sometimes people do go ott - out in N.America people with popular stud dogs wouldn't even allow a natural mating - going straight to AI.   There were concerns about brucellosis as I recall.   May well still be the case over there?

Perhaps it's a case of once bitten, twice shy with this?

And this is one reason why I personally don't like the KC's recent idea about allowing litters from two stud dogs in the one season of a bitch.   Too much risk of cross-infection if two males are used in that short interval?

I wonder if most vets would have the ability to test for all those things???

I wouldn't mind the swab but I think a course of antibiotics as routine is unnecessary.

I wouldn't mind the swab but I think a course of antibiotics as routine is unnecessary.

Well there is of course no way the stud dog owner can know if you have been putting antibiotics into your bitch or not........short of being at the bitch owner's home every day and watch it happen.

When I worked as a vet nurse in the 80s it was common for bitches to come in for swabs prior to mating.

Yes, I've been asked by 2 stud dog owners to have my bitches swabbed. The first time the lab recommended ABs and the next time, as Larry at Idexx said, there were no bacteria present that shouldn't be so ABs were really not necessary and people who used them 'just because' were the reason for antibiotic resistance.

As a non breeder asking a potentially daft question-do the stud dogs ever get swabbed?

Well now, georgepig...that is a good question. If you read the paper I posted a link to above, it might be sound (but expensive) practice to regularly carry out fertility checks (but this is just a snapshot on the day), etc on the stud dog. It doesn't seem to matter whether a dog is used frequently or not--they are as much at risk of becoming infertile, without any obvious symptoms to indicate a problem. I think most stud dog owners, if they take any action at all, place their faith in storing semen from the dog. I don't know anyone personally who carries out regular checks, but I would be interested to hear.

Yes I have my bitch swabbed everytime and yes a bitch did have an infection once which would have prevented her getting pregnant. Just to give antibiotics without swabbing is wrong.

" Just to give antibiotics without swabbing is wrong."

Quite, and I think this is where my then vet was coming from with her 'why' comment.

Good point about the stud dog needing to be checked, but I think most breeders with a popular stud dog would have him checked regularly, and in any case, if he started missing, then certainly!   Or do what was done in the States, and use AI.

> Or do what was done in the States, and use AI.

That isn't allowed by the Kennel Club in the UK for dogs that are both resident in the UK.