Does anyone have any expeience with latex and sperm motility?

I have Miniature Schnauzers (I know, I know, what you GSD owners must think of little Schnauzers, I can't imagine), a boy and girl, and have been watching time go by, hoping they will breed. My boy has great enthusiasm, girl stands, no tie.

No problem to collect my boy and inseminate my girl. Four times, three days apart. Then a couple of days later, I collected my boy and looked at the results under a microscope. It was a holocaust. Millions of sperm, normal form, drifting motionless thru clear fluid, rare WBCs.

I was collecting my boy into a latex sheath used for human vaginal ultrasound. Next day, tried again collecting my boy into a clean glass. Lots of sperm, great motility, normal forms, rare WBCs. Next day, tried again with the latex sheath. Sperm with no motility.

I've read about latex having an adverse effect on sperm motility, but this was total. Total lack of motility in the sperm. And indeed, in looking at my girl with ultrasound, I'm not seeing any gestational sacs. I inseminated her in mid October.

Now, life is what it is. Either my girl is pregnant, or she's not, only time will tell. No way to get this heat cycle back. Can't turn back the hands of time. And my gut tells me she won't have pups, and the latex seems to be the culprit. And yet, all the books say collect with a latex cone. Must be working great for lots of folks.

What do you people think? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Well, I'll just have to keep ultrasounding and try again with the next heat cycle. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for reading my post.

I have never seen this because I have never used latex. I had always been told it is a no-no. You probably found out exactly why.

I have done AI's myself, and I have been at 2 different vets for them in two different states. Neither of the vets used any latex. One I think "caught" the semen with a ziplock bag. The other, a repro vet, had clear (plastic? maybe silicone?) cones made for the job.

I have seen a multitude of things used, but one that is widely available and presterilized are the drop-in disposable bottle liners that they sell for baby bottles.

Alternatively, you can buy kits on the net that include all supplies.

Dogs can mate successfully without a tie as well. Only time will tell about your two.

You have got to be kidding. All that to make more mini schnauzers? Look, not for nothin, and this I believe across the board. If they can't figure it out, they weren't supposed to. I have bred some dogs in my life and can't imagine going thru everything you just did. There is no reason on earth that with the overpopulation of dogs that we have on this planet, that dogs that can't figure out how to have sex should be allowed to. I would just point my finger at them and laugh my A## off. What a STUPID DOG!

I think what she asked was pretty clear. It was not for you to tell her your opinion of what she did or what your beliefs are.

This goes under the "if you don't have anything constructive to say...."

It is water under the bridge at this point.

Jeff - your are 100% out of line in your post on this thread. Debra has a very legitamate post and you come in with a sarcastic answer like this. You insult HER DOG OVER THIS????? Where do you think you are coming from?

I will not tollerate this kind of an attitude on my web board. There are plenty of web board on the Internet where people can go and insult people. This is not one of them.

i agree. this was a repro tech question, it should be addressed as such.

I'd heard about the drop in bottle liners, and thanks for the suggestions.

Frankly, I have laughed my head off over this. Every time I tried to help them, they came over to me to see what I wanted. But do you realize what this means? DOGS HAVE CULTURE! They need to be trained by the other dogs in the pack how to tie. And this is true of gorillas, too. The mother gorillas are clueless as to how to raise their newborn infants. African dogs have to learn to hunt from older dogs. It's remarkable. The difference between us and them isn't that we have culture. It's that we have material culture.

In the Leerburg video, he uses a latex cone, but describes washing it extensively with hot water, alcohol, and distilled water. Maybe something gets rinsed off in this process. Or maybe all latex is not the same. It's supposed to come from a plant. Different plants? And then there's synthetic latex. I haven't been able to learn much about the chemistry of latex and sperm motility.

As long as I'm collecting my boy, I think I'll look at the sperm before putting it in my girl.

Thanks for any information you can provide.

This made very interesting reading Debra,,thanx for the post...i knew nothing about this area of dogs and thx to u i have been reading stuff all day haaaaaaaa. Thx again. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Well, I remain interested in this problem. Here's the results of an evening of web-research.

Latex is the milky sap of some plants. Rubber trees, of course, but also poppies, dandilions, and lettuce, among many others. On exposure to air, latex coagulates, sort of like a blood clot or scab. Latex contains proteins, alkaloids, starches, sugars, oils, tannins, resins, and gums. Latex performs a defensive function for the plant. It's taste can be bitter, discouraging animals from eating the plant. Among it's proteins is chitinase, which breaks down chitin, a key chemical component of the cell walls of fungi and insects. And shellfish.

Caoutchouc is a term referring to natural rubber, and most web sites about it seem to be in French. Synthetic rubber is formed by polymerization of chloroprene (Neoprene) or ethylene chloride and sodium polysulphide (Thiokol). Modern rubber is about half natural and half synthetic.

Latex is made into useful items by removal of water and vulcanization. This hardens rubber and makes it more elastic. It involves heating the rubber and adding sulfur (Charles Goodyear 1839).

At the end of the manufacturing process of natural rubber, proteolytic enzymes migrate to the surface. These are removed by traditional water leaching. One site I looked at described latex matresses used in Europe. These are washed after manufacturing to get rid of excess soaps and proteins.

Now, I don't know why anyone would say use of latex to collect stud dogs is verboten. Johnston's Canine and Feline Theriogenology shows a latex cone for collection of canine semen and Leerburg's video "Artificially Inseminate Your Dogs" uses the cone. These cones are sold on the web (vetinaryconcepts and lambriarvet). Maybe they are pre-washed. Maybe they are not the same type of latex as the sheath I was using.

On the other hand, it's certainly possible to find web sites that describe sperm immobilization with latex or voice other notes of caution.

But, I used a sheath without prewashing, and I always used a new sheath with each collection. I must assume the "proteolytic enzymes" or "soaps and proteins" on the surface of the latex immobilized the sperm or were spermicidal. Although with synthetic latex, I don't know where proteins would come from, but soap could be toxic enough, I suppose.

Live and learn. But man it bites. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Next step: thoroughly wash sheath and collect my boy, examine ejaculate microscopically, go from there. I don't know that this poor dog will ever breed and tie normally, after I've collected him so successfully. After the other dogs go out, he lies on his back and begs me to rub his stomach. Or climbs into my lap and leans back. I think he wants to be collected.

Thanks again for reading my posts. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />