Here's the scenario- Tuesday's early afternoon progesterone was 3.4, Wednesday's 4pm progesterone was 5.2. 2.5 year old Maiden bitch was bred via AI on Friday at 3pm with chilled and extended semen, and again on Saturday at 2pm the same way. No puppies, she did not conceive, and is now having a false pregnancy. No history of false pregnancy before, but this is only her second heat. Ultrasound and relaxin test both negative. My question is this...has anybody had progesterone fall back down after reaching 5.0? I did not have another progesterone level drawn after the 5.2 result, I know now that I probably should have. I'm just wondering what may have happened. TIA for any input

Could it be that even though they say that they ovulate at 5.0ng that she is ready a bit later than that? Or could it have been the opposite and that she would have been ready earlier than 5.0ng? Did you have males around her and if so how did she react to the males and how did they react to her? I am always learning more and more that males truly are the best indicators on when a bitch is ready to be bred!

I kept my boy away from her, as I didn't want an "oops" litter. As I understand it, ovulation happens between a progesterone level of 5.0 and 10.0. I'm wondering if she may have stalled and went backward a bit after she hit 5.2 and faked me out. Like I said, I didn't do a draw after the 5.2, but I will from now on with a number that close to 5.0. Just to make sure she's still rising.

In the grand scheme of things, anything is possible. But.... Some things happen so rarely it does not make good sense to use those instances as guidelines.

Was the semen checked? Did you culture your girl before breeding? Did you do thyroid? There are many different reasons your girl may not have taken.

Semen looked great, vet checked it before she did the AI. Culture was done prior to breeding. I know there could be many, many reasons for this breeding to not have taken. I'm just trying to identify what these reasons may be, so I can avoid this in the future. Havn't checked her thyroid recently, but about a year ago she was totally within normal limits.

They can stall, so I can imagine that even with a 5.2 there could have been a delay in the rise and the first breeding was too early and the second breeding could have used another afterwards. But you'll never know. So many folks I know do ONE breeding with success and with me (and knowing my numbers were dead on) produced nothing.

Maybe she resorped a litter early which is causing a false pregnancy.

As far as I know, there aren't drops after over a 5.0 or higher.

Maybe there was a lab error which I'm sure happens on rare occasion? Maybe she just missed.

It might be best to speak to breeders that have done SI's with frozen semen because they might test once more after a 5.0. The SI's, using frozen semen are done later then the average chilled or side by side AI breeding.

Her progesterone should still be elevated if she was capable of conceiving, you might want to check her levels now. I don't think this is the reason for your miss, I think you bred too early for her. Extended semen doesn't live as long as people think.

A lot of things could have gone wrong. The one you are proposing is probably the least plausible even when it is possible
Incompatibility between the dam and sire is a common cause of fail pregnancy.
Split heat.
Lack of progesterone to keep pregnancy.
Underlying infections.
Just plain bad luck.
For her next heat you might want to do more testing including a vaginal culture.

The OP already said a culture was done and you don't do a *vaginal* culture.

The majority of failures are due to timing, I think it's something like 90%.

Since you this is only her 2nd heat and she is 2.5 years old, this makes me think she was slow to mature. If she is slow to mature then there is a possibility that her eggs will also take longer to mature. I would breed a little later next time.

So tell me *Info*, what type of culture is done if it's not vaginal? The cervix can't be reached for a culture as far as I know. Maybe I missed what the OP said about the type of culture. I don't want to assume it was vaginal or any other type if OP didn't state it.

This is what I think too.

Also, for next time you may want the vet to do a transcervical. One of my boys was bred to a bitch using chilled semen and she didn't conceive. In true bitch owner fashion, she blamed it entirely on the stud. She was very vocal about the miss and wary to use him again even though the semen was evaluated and looked good enough to produce a litter with vaginal breeding.

Because of her unfounded worries concerning my boy's semen she decided to do a transcervical next time. During the process it was determined that her bitch could not get pregnant with a vaginal breeding because of the shape and position of her cervix. The vet couldn't even approach her cervix despite multiple tries. They did a surgical and she had a nice, full litter by natural delivery.

All this to say.....there could be many reasons she missed and some of which you would never even think of.

An interesting situation that I'm glad you posted. If the repro vet didn't attempt the TC and then didn't resort to a SI, that girl never would have become pregnant no matter what her levels were or which stud dog's semen was used.

It's good information for anyone who owns a bitch although it is probably a rare, congenital malformation. Thanks Breeder/Stud Owner.