So today we went to get the 6 staples out of FiFi's belly... took just a little over an hour to get there, 3 minutes to get them out and about an hour back, today was a free visit though, yeah, and with the hybrid worth it.! All is well. We're told to take it easy still till the vet sees FiFi.. no ball play just long walks. I know I'm just looking for signs... but she seems hungry... I know it is too early to have increased appetite, and it may just be stabilizing after the diminish at ovulation time... but it seems different to me.
Next I need to schedule the ultrasound.....

Back home

I'm so glad I didn't go to the vet alone... FiFi kept trying to stand up in the car while recovering... it was now 10:30pm... silly girl wanted to know where we were... once home I had to put a cone on her for the night, remembering how she licked the holter electrodes off around 5 am when we did the holter test (we only got 13 hours) ... no chance this time to cause trouble! She stood like this for 15 minutes before I could coax her to lie down. Where did my beautiful show dog go, look at that top line, LOL .... did I bring home the wrong dog? I slept on the floor on a mattress, but we both didn't get rest until 4am after she had some homemade chicken broth and realized that she could lie on her side up against me and be comfortable. We slept till 8:30am.



So for the week-end she's being kept very very quiet in the kitchen/dog area. No jumping, running, whatever. When one of the 5 of us can hang with her she has the cone off, but otherwise it's ON, which she absolutely hates. When we take it off she's SO happy, and ready to chase critters in the yard, obviously feeling great!!!



So far so good. Other than hurt self esteem she's good.. no bleeding or oozing. I am wondering if the cone is too big though.. but the smaller one was too small the vet said.... More soon....

The Implant

We had a 8pm appointment Friday night.... I was worried and excited at the same time. We had hoped we could watch, and we were allowed to see everything. We saw FiFi's "date" under microscope, she went out as a light, steady heart and normal bleeding during everything.



It was very strange seeing my big strong healthy dog lying on the table limp and out - it kinda scared me and I couldn't help thinking of the terrible day when I will loose her.....

Everything went well, with one hick-up. Her left uterine horn was normal, but the right one had a large extrauterine cyst with adhesions causing right uterine torsion. The vet broke down the adhesion, aspirated cyst and corrected the torsion, then inserted second half of sperm.



We will now have to keep a closer eye on her pregnancy if it takes, she may need a c-section, only time will tell. The vet said that if we had done a normal breeding she may not have taken, or only conceived in one horn causing a small litter.... Mother Nature... oh boy....

I can't sleep! I've been tossing and turning for the past 2.5 hours. I keep thinking about the upcoming implant. I worry that the sperm all died because her progesterone stalled. And then I worry that something goes wrong during the implant... I can hear the waves now, maybe they can lull me to sleep finally....

Who's the guy?

I should announce who the stud for FiFi's litter is.

Ch. Alpha's The Conquistador, aka "Boss", bred by Susanne Smith. He lives in Alabama and is stunning IMO.

I think the combination should produce some very nice pups. The pups will all be dominant black and vWD carriers. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the breeding takes between Ch. Alpha's The Conquistador and Ch. Wingate She's A Rainbow RN, WAC.

Finally, she has ovulated. The progesterone test this morning read 5.6. The implant will happen 8pm on Friday night. Not ideal for the vet, but we think it is the best time for the eggs and the chilled sperm that has been sitting in the fridge for a week at that point on "an extension".

Well, here's my first blog ever and hopefully first of many regarding this exciting breeding. This is meant for me to keep track of things and "think out loud", and for friends and family to check in and see what's going on.
FiFi is in heat (finally - she's a 7 monther judging on the last 2 heats), and we've done 3 progesterone tests so far. Semen is at the reproduction vet on a 10 day extender, because at first her progesterone seemed to go up really fast, but was stalling today. Another test will be done Monday am, and hopefully we will do the implant Tuesday or so.