I was having a conversation this morning with a really good friend of mine who also is a dog owner and breeder.  My friend is undergoing fertility treatment and looks at her saliva under a microscope so she can (as well as a load of other tests) follow her monthly cycle.  I said to her that there was something like that available for dogs and we had a bit of a discussion about it.  I thought it was called Mate-tel so I was going to send her the link to show her, however I cannot find the company or the website?  Can anyone help please?

It's exactly the same as this: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/OVATEL-Ovulation-Fertility-SALIVA-Test-NEW-/180539735534?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Health_HealthCare_RL&hash=item2a0901bdee#ht_1370wt_1161

Yes, there is something called Mate-Tel which does that, you're quite right. :-)

As far as I know Mate-Tel have ceased trading.

Oh that's a shame - must admit I found it hard to get enough saliva from my bitch, but when I did, I got very clear results.

Yes mate-tel have finished trading... but we use the same thing (recommended by mate-tel people) and that was just a simple microscope!  Exactly the same thing, fraction of the price!  We also use a tiny little one designed for women to test their ovulation and got it off ebay for about £4! HTH

> must admit I found it hard to get enough saliva from my bitch

Same here.  Mine aren't slobbery enough, so it was a total waste of money for me.

We've different breeds to you but I found letting her lick a piece of cheese for about 10 seconds or so really got her salivating and easy to get sample off.  Had exactly the same problem before I tried this and we don't have slobbery breeds so I know it's not simple!

Yes, I tried matetel - proved useless for my non slobbery breed. But the matetel people did kindly refund me. Wonder why they are not in business any longer ?