March 2011:
On the trip to Crufts asked Marit if we could imagine to have a litter of Tess in the fall. She expcted her to be in heat in September and with the baby coming at about the same time, it was bad timing. Tess was also 4 years in September, it began to rush with the first litter. We had plans for Maya, but said we could take a litter of Tess instead. But had we known what we had to expect, we should have held us to the plan with Maya! LOL
October 2011:
After some back and forth we were allowed to use a lovely Canadian male and sperm came over to the Veterinary College in time for insemination. However, there was a fly in the ointment, movement of sperm after thawing was very bad and even worse than they had predicted, it was as low as 20-25%. But we went for it, we did not have any other option either. Last blood sample was taken at the veterinary college Friday, 21/10, it showed a value of 21. The insemination took place Sunday and Monday and should be optimal, so we thought to have done what we could to succeed..
But we had not calculated with these tollers, Tess was not satisfied with this disheveled in the Veterinary College and selected her own strategy.
Well back here at Lauvstua Tess yelled out Naico both Tuesday and Wednesday and gave a clear message that she was done. Normally she would have been, we've seen so many breedings and have never had problems with stolen mating. So we sent out, both Tess and Naico on Wednesday morning, after a while we heard some strange noises outside and there they hang. We took a new blood test at 2 o'clock the same day, it showed a value of 61. Too low in relation to what was expected, but also quite high for the mating to take place. But it did!
21. November 2011:
So we have been here for a month and just waited, is Tess pregnant and if so with whom? Ultrasound 22 November showed that yes, she was pregnant, they saw 6 on ultrasound. Many say there is no problem to take the abortion drug, but I have a different experience and we would not take the chance that something might go wrong for the lovely bitch. If Naico is the father it'sa of breeding ratio of just over 4%, and it could have been much worse. We must of course take a genetic test to know this for sure, so far can all live in suspense, who is the father!
23. November 2011:
Tess is now located at Ninas home at Brandval, we are going to NV-11 in Lillestrøm on saturday and will take Tess home with us then.
After 25 litters we have had no problems like this, but we learned one thing, take a new blood test the day insemination takes place, although it may seem unnecessary.
23. December 2011:
Tess gave birth to 4 puppies, 2 males and 2 females. It was two more puppies, but we did'nt manage to save them. The date of birth was correct if Silas was the father, if it was Naicos they came 3 days too early. Two of the puppies also has a lot of white and Trym even looked excactly like Silas, so we were quite sure it had to be Silas. When the pups were 7 weeks we took a gen test and we got it all confirmed.
