There was a good thread that I found from 2 yrs ago comparing Camelot vs Chill 5. At the time, many favored Camelot. I have a dilemma w/ the holiday week and breeding so had to make an early decision on collection/shipping yesterday, hoping my girl was 2 days from ovulation. Ends up she's probably not ovulating until today (was 3.9 yesterday at 3pm). I had snagged the last appt for the day at 11 this am (assuming the package shows on time!) but now wonder if I should not just hold it until Thurs am which would be the +2 day most likely. I have another coming on Thurs for Fri delivery. So the Q is, is it better in the bitch, or better in the fridge? My vet has commented he thinks it lives longer in the bitch and has done 1 AI for me at day 0 w/ Chill 10 w/ a follow up at +3 w/ Chill 5 and we got a full litter of 8. I've done several at +1, +3 and had full litters. I have no experience at all w/ refrigerating Camelot, however. Stud has been producing large litters w/ other bitches and this bitch whelped 10 w/ her only other litter, using Chill 5 at +2 and +4 days. What to do, what to do.....

I am with your vet. Better in the bitch, just in case she fast tracks this time. I have had one, a maiden, do 4.5 on a Friday, bred on Saturday as soon as we got the results, then totally OUT on Sunday--so out the stud dog sniffed her over like yesterdays news, then looked for back up (AI assistance) as he couldn't penetrate. However, if you made the other choice, that could work well, too. AI her yourself as a Christmas present? Friday will finish the job. Good luck!

The plot thickens. Due to the holiday overload, Fedex can only tell me that my package will be here by 5pm! After 40 min on hold w/ Fedex, they still could not locate the truck and then the call was cut off. Grrrrr! My vet was nice enough to make himself available this afternoon if it arrives in a timely fashion, otherwise, yes, I may be doing this one myself because of the feedback I've had that Camelot isn't storing that well in the fridge in their experience.

Usually 2 vials of extended semen is shipped at one time, this is for two inseminations, one immediate and one for use later. If sperm viability is poor(50%) both tubes can be used at once and another shipment would have to be shipped if you need 2 breedings.

And once inside the bitch, what does fresh semen live on? Have there really been studies of all of this or is it all speculation, because I've gotten quite the range of opinions. Normally, +2 and +4 days from ovulation (using 5ng as that base) is ideally what I've tried to target, but lately I've heard more folks using terms of "x days from LH surge" (and then the definition of the LH surge varies since most are not measuring that, but using the corresponding range in progesterone values). Some will call 4ng ovulation (ICSB as I recall), so perhaps the slightly earlier insemination is doing more than we think. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find concrete info on whether to expect the semen to live longer in the bitch vs in the fridge, and since this was only a 2 day extender, I punted and got the goods into her later today once Fedex finally arrived at 1pm. I couldn't bear the thought of looking at it on Thurs am, dead in the vial! Sure wasn't going to do anything that way, and yes, it was a 2 day extender unfortunately, so theoretically, it'd start to run out tomorrow. Oh well, have another coming for the end of the week and I'll confirm progesterone Thurs and can window that from there.