I am getting ready to use frozen semen on my girl. It belongs to me and there are 31 inseminations worth.
I have not spoken with my repro vet yet about this topic, but wanted some advice from the "pros" on this forum.
He does both surgical and transcervical - which would you choose and why?
Thanks so much for the advice.

Have you asked him/her? I have never heard of any repro specialist recommending anything other than surgical with frozen semen.

We use the Transcervical method when we have frozen semen. I feel it's safer for the bitch, why do surgery when to don't have to.

Many vets don't know how to do transcervical and THAT is the reason they opt for surgery with frozen semen, at least that is what a very well known repro. specialist told me!!!

If your vet is comfortable with both, put your bitch first and forget the surgery

If the vet can do transcervical, I would opt for the transcervical. Last year I had a litter of 5 girls from doing a transcervical with frozen semen. Easier on the bitch, easier on the owner!

Bonnie

Now we all know why it is important to do our research for the sake of our dogs Never underestimate the value of a 2nd opinion

What about litter size? I thought you get much smaller litters doing transcervical which could lead to a big disappointment if there are none of the gender you want to keep or not enough to choose from to get a good keeper. The whole point is being able to keep a good prospect so a larger litter is better no?

According to Hutch your chances of a larger litter are better with surgical. The vet also examins the uterus for signs of problems.

In my case, surgical, uterus in excellent condition, but I only got 3 pups.

If you want another opinion other than your vet pay Hutch for a phone consult. Its well worth the $40.

The only time I did a frozen breeding was done with a Trans-cervical and it resulted in 12 puppies, the largest litter by 1 my bitch ever had!!
I have done several transcervicals for semen from older dogs that it was a "it better work or else were sunk" and they were successful.
I've done one breeding with a surgical but that was to look at my girls uterus before we could do the breeding in case there was complications from a previous surgery, otherwise I would have gone with a regular AI.
Some vets use a fiber optic lense to help with the TC, the one I did with frozen wasn't.

In my limited experience, I did two surgicals and one transcervical with frozen semen.

One litter - surgical - 6 pups, 4 girls, 2 boys
One litter - Surgical - no pups
One litter - transcervical - 5 pups, 5 girls

I think it depends on your bitch and her ordinary size litters rather than the means of doing the implanting.

bonnie

I have a friend's bitch who recently had the surgical procedure. Her dog died a week later from complications, a beautiful young golden. Hard to predict the unknown. M

The bitch died after the surgical implant? What happened??

Yes, she was implanted on a Saturday and died the following Thursday. She was known to be healthy with clearances going into the surgery. I do not have the particulars, just told complications due to surgery.