Has anybody used the vet to to test the bitch to find out when they are ovulating? If you have what does it consist of and what is the price? Cheers

If its any use I do know of a man who does the tests too
I THINK its about £5.00 from him,I can give you his name and number if its any help,dont know what a vet would charge though.

Hi there,

I have only bred once and got the tests done or test done as I was going to travel 500 miles to the stud dog so wanted to be near right. When she was first tested the result was she was to be mated within 24 hours . My vet took £15 , a simple blood test and I had the result in 30 mins. I was glad I did it as that was actually on day 9 and had not planned to travel for at least 48 hours. I went right away as it was a 10 hoour journey and she was mated day 10 and 11. It was a successful mating.

Some of the others will be a lot more clued up on it..

Pam

Its the same with me Pam the stud dog I have chosen is a 5 hour drive to get to him so I want to be sure she is ready and also don't want a repeat mating because of the distance.
Chris

Me too. My vets either pass a glass slide over the bitch's vulva or use a swab to go "in" and then smear the swab onto a slide - dry, fix, and then look at the cells there under a scope. It takes about 5 minutes and has always been accurate. I go on day 2 to check that there is no infection and then another if we are only going for one mating (because of distance) when I think she is ready. It costs £10.

It depends on what tests you are speaking of. There is Cytology, testing for hormones (premate) and testing the resistance of the vaginal wall using a probe.

I had my bitch premate blood tested, which required 3 blood samples to be analysed and the cost of the premate testing kit. This cost me £70. Unfortunately the premate kits are only available in minimum of 10 tests per kit, and they have a relatively short shelf life. This means that you will be charged for the cost of the 10 tests and the vets time for taking the blood tests. If there were two bitches to test then the price would be slightly less.

we had the premate test. cost £10. she was ready that day.we waited an hour for the results and then set of on our journey. they are very good.

I like the cytology test that mine do as there is no trauma having to give blood- for me mostly!!! I dont think many vets offer it though. Mine is the onky one ion the area that does, all the others are pre mate - and one small practise doesn't do premate, because as Brainless says they have to buy a whole pack and its not feasable in a small practise.

A lady brought her bitch to me that had been blood tested. Cost her around £14-00. She was told the bitch had ovulated and was to come straight away for the mating.
The dog was interested in her and mated her but she did not have any puppies.
Since then someone else told me that if the blood test comes back positive then wait two to three days.......
Is this correct????
The dog is fertile and produced a litter with my own bitch a few weeks later.

The ova won't be mature enough to be fertilised until two days after ovulation, so there should not be nay hurrynif the bitch ovulated that day. Even so with a fertile male his sperm should have stayed viable long enough to fertilise the eggs, even if she wqas mated on or before the day of ovulation. It is just better to have fresh semen there when the eggs are ready. Why the bitch didn't go on to have pups could be many and varied. The eggs were quite possibly fertilised, but then the whole hormonal system has to keep everything going, and any inbalance or upset along the way can stop a pregnancy getting established/progressing. It is like in people with IVF. They generally implant several embryos, but still the conception rate is only about 25% and rarely do all the embryos result in a multiple birth!