January 19, 2012
I am wondering if artificially inseminating too many times can cause pregnancy and birth issues?
Full Question:
I am wondering if artificially inseminating too many times can cause pregnancy and birth issues?We A.I.'ed our English Bulldog 3 times, 2 days apart starting on day 12 of her cycle. The A.I. was successful, and I was very diligent on her diet, sodium consumption, folic acid and I gave her daily cranberry pills for water retention to help avoid water puppies that are common in the breed. She has no health issues and nothing was abnormal throughout the pregnancy. She started leaking a black with greenish color fluid, close to a week early of her due date (63 days from 1st A.I.). I knew that something was not right and got her into the vet immediately. She said that she could hear only 1 heart beat and could see 4 skeletons that looked underdeveloped. In discussing all the options, we chose to wait for her to naturally expel the puppies and keep a close eye on her. Within 24 hours she started to expel them, which they looked of all different stages of development. The first was so small and was not even recognizable as a puppy. She then continued to expel others at different stages. I took her back to the vet the next morning to make sure that they were all out as the smaller fetuses she was obviously not able to have seen on the x-rays done earlier and I was unsure of how many we were dealing with. When we went back in there, was no heartbeat; so we opted to have her given Oxytocin to expel the rest while we were at the vet clinic. I am wondering if doing the A.I. spaced out like we did could be the cause? Would it be better to only A.I. twice, for a closer development stage in the puppies. I have been able to find nothing stating the negative of this, but have found some breeders state that they do 3 matings/A.I.
Renee
Cindy's Answer:
I would suspect some other type of problem, maybe an infection.
I’d have a reproduction SPECIALIST do a complete exam on your female complete with vaginal culture, scope and ultrasound.
Puppies are not different ages, even if the inseminations were done days apart. Maybe your female was exposed to something during pregnancy that killed the pups (i.e. cleaning products, chemicals, etc.). It may be that the puppies had a genetic abnormality too.
It’s impossible to really know anything without an exam from a vet though. Good luck to you!
Cindy Rhodes
I’d have a reproduction SPECIALIST do a complete exam on your female complete with vaginal culture, scope and ultrasound.
Puppies are not different ages, even if the inseminations were done days apart. Maybe your female was exposed to something during pregnancy that killed the pups (i.e. cleaning products, chemicals, etc.). It may be that the puppies had a genetic abnormality too.
It’s impossible to really know anything without an exam from a vet though. Good luck to you!
Cindy Rhodes
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