I know this subject has been looked at slightly in
boxer problem. I wonder how many of you have
used the ovulation detector with great sucess or
not. I would be very interested to hear what results
people have had. My question is does it really work?
Nutkin.

Hi - Vet Gary England (a reproduction specialist) said at a seminar I attended that the Guide Dogs for the Blind had trialed an ovulation detector. Their findings were such that they have abandoned using it - you can draw your own conclusions!! Hope this helps -( I decided to stop saving for one. )

Hi, what amuses me about it , is that the distributers take whole page ads (must be very expensive!!) in the dog press slagging off those that have bought one and have not had success, and then the likes of you and I are expected to cough up the exorbitant price for something that I personally have heard no good reports of!! :-) I cant see how they cost this much to produce, £300 is a lot of money for something that doesn't seem to be that reliable. If they had recomendations in an ad from those that HAD had success with the device, it would be more tempting to buy one.

Firstly they have printed recommendations from people who have used them previously. The units come from Poland so the importing costs probably add up. I havent had a chance to use mine 'properly' yet but if you have a bitch that keeps missing you use the device and then she produces a litter then surely that is worth it after all you have forked out stud fees for nothing!

Hi all, Im sure they work sometimes, but Bec kindly lent me hers for my wolfhound bitch, and it was no good for her because she hated having it inserted.

HI philippa, I expect they do work when used properly and if the bitch will accept it, I was just amused at their advertising methods! I did enquire about them when they were first advertised and think that they were developed in Poland, but that the distributer in the UK actually makes them up themselves now, pleae correct me if I'm wrong!! I agree if you have a difficult bitch that keeps missing/whatever and you get a litter, then they would defnately be worth it.

I'll check with them about this as the last time I visited their premises they were still importing them from Poland!

Thank you all for your replies.
I hope more people put their views on the subject down.
I really wish they were not so much money.
Nutkin

How do you use them - is it a case of inserting it and it tells you whether the bitch is ovulating or not or is it more complicated than this?

Christine

From what I have been led to believe you use it over a period of days and chart a graph of the readings when the reading peeks that is approx. ovulation so you mate about 24 hours after the reading starts to drop to catch the eggs or something to that effect.

what do you catch em in??? Perhaps this is the problem with it, slippery things eggs!!!Sorry couldn't resist. :-)

Ok you insert them into the bitch and turn them 360. The probe at the end takes a reading of the mucus at the cervix. The reading starts to go higher as the numbers start to peak you take a reading several times a day when the reading levels off thats the best time to mate. You can get a false Peak too but this is all explained in the booklet.

So it is not as straight forward as they imply in their ads then?

Christine

Its very simple to use from what I've seen of it!

I've never found it a problem to use - if you can't get it 'in' then you have the angle wrong and my bitches didn't seem to mind it.

The charting is easy u mark it off at the level each day from when you note her season starting usually it will hit a high on about day 5 but the dog's generally aren't that interested then it drops again after a few hours.

The next high a few day's later is when ovulation is happening - on the 2nd high I take the readings every couple of hours if it remains at an even high then I know the bitch is at her best for a mating.

If a bitch comes and she has a reading above 1000 then she goes home again without a mating as this is an indication of infection

I did buy a tester - but wished I hadn't bothered. I have tried it on 2 bitches (along with blood tests just so I know I am reading it correctly) the readings were very hard to tell with one bitch having 3 false peaks !!! . The other bitch again didn't have very high readings only just getting into the 300 and gradually went down over a week yet the bitch was mated 7 days before (vets advice) and the dog wouldn't mate her and she wouldn't stand. I have tried the company and they have gone through the readings and cannot understand them either " your bitch must be different " "it's so easy normally" would like to ask for a refund but as I have used it 3 times (with the readings being all over the place ) and never mated on the 'reading' day / had it nearly 12 mths don't think I have much chance ??