# Inducing a heat cycle



## spiritsmom (Mar 1, 2003)

My GSD, Nyxie had heat cycles January and August 2012. She had another January 2013 and was bred via side by side AI as she would not allow the male to enter her. She missed, no puppies seen on ultrasound. I did progesterone testing prior to bringing her to the stud. My vet wanted me to run one more progesterone instead of me bringing her down so we did. I meant to bring her on a wednesday when her level was 2.9 but with the vet wanting to do another level I had to wait to bring her down saturday (she was 8.1 friday). Got the AI done sunday and monday which resulted in no puppies. I think if I had taken her down wednesday as I had wanted to I would be having puppies. The reason we waited to run another level was my vet told me if I brought her down before she ovulated and she was stressed about the unfamiliar place it would cause her to go out of heat and she would never ovulate. So I waited even though my gut told me she was ready - she flagged and stood for my neutered male thursday and friday and then nothing on saturday. 

According to her cycles she is due to come in again in August which would result in a winter litter and puppies being ready around christmas time - both of which I would rather avoid. I have heard of inducing heat cycles but don't know if they are safe or even if it works. If she would come in season in June I would be thrilled. I plan to use the same stud and just bring her down there and he will check her every day. I know the problem is not with the stud because he just sired 2 litters and had his semen evaluated. My other option is AI again, but doing a TCI to better ensure it gets where it needs to go. My vet does not induce heat cycles, I would need to find another vet that did - there are 2 repro vets nearish to me - 1 in Columbus and 1 in Cincinnati. 

Am I asking for trouble in trying to bring her into heat early? Has anyone actually done it and had success? It costs alot of money to do and if there is little chance of success then I would rather just let nature take its course.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

I've never done it. 

I have had no luck with AIs. I think that if I was afraid my bitch would get too old to breed safely if I did not breed her soon, I would go to a repro-specialist and have them surgically implant. This would allow them to evaluate the uterine horns and maybe remove any cycst, etc, that might decrease the probability of implantation on the walls of each horn. I wish I did that with Heidi. 

Heidi is six, so I will never get anything out of her. I had the vet do AIs with her, and another breeder. But I probably should have gone to a repro specialist.


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## spiritsmom (Mar 1, 2003)

I found one in Cincinnati that uses cabergoline, it's a pill that brings them into heat in about 2 weeks or so. Expensive I think, but it might be worth it to have the litter timed better. The compounding for it alone is around $200 and that doesn't include the cost of the drug itself. I'll have to decide how badly I don't want winter puppies. Nyxie's only 2.5 yrs old so I'm not concerned yet with the condition of her uterus and all. But I also don't want to wait another year to breed her. Decisions to make!


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## MadLab (Jan 7, 2013)

IMO you should only mate your female with dogs she accepts. AI is what is wrong with breeding these days.


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