Would like to purchase an equitaner and not sure which way to go. Is the tube style better than the cup style? How many times can the cups be used before having to be replaced? Am I better to invest in the Equitaner I just to have the security of a longer time frame, or is there more hassle with shipping due to additional weight? Also any idea of a company/place/website in Canada that sells the equitaners? Thanks!
We are located in Canada as well and, by far, the best place to buy an Equitainer is from Hamilton, who makes the Equitainer. We priced out a lot of Canadian places and it was better off for us to buy straight from the company. That being said, we've bought several used ones from eBay for $50 US or less and also bought used ones off of other breeders and have been very happy with them.
I prefer the cup style over the tube style to work with. That being said, I find the cup style can be a bit messy for the Mare Owners and vets to work with at the other end. The one problem with using the tube style is you have to be able to send at least 57.75 ml of semen in each tube (or water in one if you don't have enough for two doses) so, if you have a stallion that may not be able to ship that much volume, you're better to go with the cup style.
Many stallion owners have just bought the 48 hour Equtainer over the 72 hour and had no problems. That being said, we decided, if we were going to make the effort to purchase an Equitainer over the disposables (which we have as well), we might as well get the 72 hour one. We've had no more hassles shipping a 72 hour Equitainer as compared to the little disposables. We give our Mare Owners the option to use either the disposables or the Equitainers but always try and educate and encourage them to use the Equitainers.
A couple of our Equitainers are more than ten years old and still have the original Isothermalizers (the cup container) still with them. As long as you educate your Mare Owners and make sure they look after the Equitainers, you shouldn't have to replace anything.
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