HI, several questions re: shipped semen I recvd an equitainer from the breeder yesterday with these conditions noted. 1) the protective cap wasnt over the dose portion of the container 2) the first dose on top (whirlpak) was only cool not cold 3) first dose had air bubbles in it 4) 75 ml dose - which I understand to be acceptable and NOW THE KICKER...I specifically requested a stat sheet be sent as the owner kept indicating the stallion wasnt doing well. small breeder w/ family problems going on 5) the stat sheet was preprinted w/ this information hand written in: raw semen 150 ml and only 50 ml of extender to make a 75 ml dose!!! nothing was stated as to counts, etc. 6) somehow they figured 75% motility-my guess is the figured that percentage on 200 ml w/ only 50 ml of it being extender. Per all prior shipments I have recvd from other larger breeders it is usually 7ml or so raw semen w/ 45-50 ml extender to make the breeding dose. Just how "good" can this shipment be for actually doing what you want it to do..Isnt there going to be a lot of dead sperm because not enough extender? I am having my vet check the 20 ml balance left in each dose bag today. Collection was done on 6/22 9am-first breeding was 5pm on 6/23 second breeding was done today 6/24 5:30am Comments and or clarifications please-I have looked at the articles and other threads to see if anything like this has been discussed but couldnt find any. many thanx susan
If by "protective cap" you mean the lead shield, or the plastic cap to the cup that sits in the isothermalizer, that is not an issue if it is missing.
Hard to say why the top bag wasn't cold, but if it had got down to 5°C it would be cool enough. I suspect that is the least of your worries...
It depends how many air bubbles... if there are just small one, although with most extenders (INRA '96 is an exception and can be shipped aerobically) you want to exclude the air, often one sees a few small bubbles left and the effect seems to be minimal with most stallions. If OTOH there was 50% air bubbles or something, that (again if INRA '96 wasn't being used) is unacceptable.
75-ml is a greater volume than I would want. We generally consider 60-ml to be the top end and centrifuge if it looks as though we would need to send more than that.
No information is always bad! To be fair, some people send excellent semen and no information, but if I get no paperwork, alarm bells always jingle in my brain! I guess the only think worse than getting no paperwork would be getting paperwork that appears to have come from a different day!!!!
150 ml semen to 50 ml extender is totally insufficient. In fact it is insufficient for even on farm use, where a 1:1 ration is considered normal. The final concentration of the extended semen should be between 25 and 50 million sperm/ml, and the extension ratio should be a minimum of 3 parts extender to 1 part semen (again, INRA '96 is different, and can go down to 1:1 successfully). Your veterinarian can establish the concentration of the semen by counting it with a hemacytometer (which would be good to do in this situation - we always do).
Motility... what can I say...?
My guess is that your vet will find a lot of dead sperm when he evaluates it if indeed they did ship with the above parameters. One should "never say never" but a pregnancy outcome is unlikely. After evaluation, if it does indeed look bad, I would encourage you to have your veterinarian contact the stallion owner and inform them of the poor outcome (don't get too confrontational at this stage, as it is always embarrassing when the mare does come up pregnant ), and see if [s]he can offer some assistance. That is what we usually do - try to adopt an educational approach (it doesn't always work, but we have at least extended the proverbial olive branch). If [when] the mare comes up "open", that call might discuss the possibility of reshipping semen free of charge and responsible preparation....
thank you for your advice, I will do just as you instruct and let you know the outcome of the counts-again thanx for your extremely valuable information-I would have never known any different if I hadnt gone to one of your instructional seminars!!!!I WOULD STRONGLY ENCOURAGE ANYONE WHO IS BREEDING OR HAVING BRED STALLIONS/MARES TO RUN AND NOT WALK, DO NOT PASS GO, AND GET INTO THESE CLASSES---THEY ARE SO VALUABLE TO THE HORSE OWNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! susan
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), and see if [s]he can offer some assistance. That is what we usually do - try to adopt an educational approach (it doesn't always work, but we have at least extended the proverbial olive branch). If [when] the mare comes up "open", that call might discuss the possibility of reshipping semen free of charge and responsible preparation....
