At Rolling Meadows Animal Hospital we provide our clients with a complete array of reproductive services. These include diagnostics on problem mares and breeding with cooled semen. (Dr. Huenefeld is trained in embryo transfer but no longer offers this service. We no longer offer breeding with frozen semen due to time and handling constraints.)
We are happy to provide diagnostics at any time, if you are interested in breeding mares, be sure to contact us in the winter or very early spring. Get your name on the list early for next season!
Every year our clinic provides AI services to a large number of clients. Some of these are breeding farms, others are individual mares that are bred on the farm or in clinic. We use fresh cooled semen. If you decide to have us AI your mare, we will go through several steps:
- Set a target date to start breeding. This will vary depending on your facilities ability to handle early foaling, your mares past reproductive performance, etc.
- Contact prospective stallion owners, determine their dates of shipping, deposit requirements, notification requirements, etc.
- Examine your mare. Determine a plan based on her history and what our examination shows at that time.
- Use a progressive plan to systematically examine your mare by ultrasound with the goal being to have the mare produce a 3.5 or larger follicle.
- Ship semen. we contact stallion owners in most cases to request shipment.
- Insemination and induce ovulation. Stallion semen lives up to 4 days, the egg that is ovulated is only fertile about 24 hours. We aim for ovulation about 12 hours following insemination.
- Observe for ovulation and/or uterine problems.
- Pregnancy exam day 14 post ovulation.
- Follow-up exams at 30 and 45 days.
Once the process is started, we can help you through everything from paperwork to shipment arrangement.