Sunday, July 3, 2011

Going to the dogs

Blood work, ultrasounds and constant doctor's appointments - such is the life of an infertile woman going through fertility treatments - or such is the life of a pedigreed dog trying to conceive.

My girlfriend has one of the top dogs in the country (in her breed) and she decided to have a litter of puppies this summer. I had no idea that it was quite such a procedure. I mean dogs are well known for getting busy in the backyard and ending up pregnant.

Not this dog - since a dog can't tell you when she feels like she's ovulating and it's a bitch (pardon the pun) trying to get them to pee on an OPK stick, multiple vet visits for blood work and ultrasounds are done so that they can identify her peak fertile days and have her hook up with the stud dog.

My friend's dog's mother was also going through her "fertility identification" at the same time, but instead of the traditional method of trying doggie style, she was artificially inseminated.

Then, the waiting period. I guess you have to wait a full 30 days to know whether or not a canine is knocked up, though my girlfriend said that she was pretty sure her gal was since she seemed horomonal. More blood work and ultrasounds confirmed it (again, chasing your dog around a yard with a HPT could prove quite challenging.)

It seemed quite bizarre to me that I was following this lovely dog's progress in getting pregnant since part of if so closely matched when I was doing timed intercourse cycles.

The biggest difference is that she got pregnant x 6 or 7 and I never did.

4 comments:

  1. i bet the vets were easily to work with and offered better customer service than the majority of RE's most of us have subjected ourselves to with the same regularity. what an interesting little world to know about though...i had no idea it was harder than a backyard date with each other (at least to begin with I mean!)

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  2. It's really interesting to hear about reproduction therapy for dogs. It's pretty similar. I'm sorry it worked for the dog and not for you though.

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  3. My brother was friends with a dog breeder who sent her dog to some dog fertility clinic in Colorado. They tried for a year to get the dog pregnant, but unfortunately the dog never got pregnant. But the owner spent about the amount of money a human would spend to get pregnant, well, those of us who frequent fertility clinics for people. Amazing, huh?

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  4. She seems hormonal? Is she searching the house for chocolate and blaming her husband for insignificant things? ;)

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