Archive for month: July, 2007

Wow, we dog breeders sure do know how to rake in the big bucks! Why, take a look at the balance sheet for the last few months here at Chez Bullmarket.

We decided to breed Journey to my deceased male, Rebbie. That’s not really as gruesome as it sounds, since we have frozen semen on him. Sounds great, right? Just pop that bun in the oven, and start percolating some puppies! Not so fast, actually. Frozen semen breeding is pricey.

First, I had to pay off the remaining balance at the facility where the semen was stored. Then, I arranged to have it transferred to a new, closer facility, where I had to pay another full two years in advance for storage. Total cost with shipping, storage fees and container rental?

$1856.00

OK, that’s not so bad. After all, I don’t have any storage charges now for two years, and I still have almost forty straws of semen. Well, but ten of them are low count straws. And it takes at least four straws to do a breeding. Huh. I guess I don’t have as many usable breedings left as I thought. OK, still not so bad. I have more than enough for now, and I don’t have to pay a stud service for this breeding!

But I do have to pay for timing tests for Journey.

LH and progesterone daily, plus Draminskis and slides to check for cornification.

Grand total for nine days of testing? $1600.02

To be fair, I should also factor in the thirty minutes each way drive to the veterinarian’s office, plus the gas, plus the time off work. I’ll skip that cost, though. Let’s just call it a labour of love. Or stupidity. Whatever.

In the middle of this, J Dog’s mom, Sailor, decided to come into heat. Well, I really didn’t want to breed Sailor this summer, but this is likely her last heat for a while, and I planned to breed her one last time. Well, Sailor’s litter is different, too. I plan on keeping everything out of it – and I mean everything, unless they’re born with an extra eye. Or two. , so… ok fine. Let’s do it.

Coincidentally, my choice for Sailor’s last litter had also been Rebbie, and so:

LH and progesterone daily, plus Draminskis and slides to check for cornification.

Grand total for nine days of testing? $1600.02

Again.

And let’s not even talk about the gas or the driving. Oh well, it’s all worth it if we get some good puppies.

Speaking of puppies, since we can’t be sure until the ultrasounds if anyone’s pregnant, we supplement and change feeding just to be safe. That means fish oil caps and b vitamins and raspberry leaves and folic acid and prime chicken and turkey. Twice a day.

Fun.

Right, we’re at the 30 day mark – let’s do some ultrasounds! So, we’re back to the vet – and this time, we’re dealing with some pricey equipment. Two ultrasounds, at $340 a pop. And guess what? Journey – isn’t pregnant. She’s fat, thanks to all that chicken and turkey, but she’s not pregnant. Sailor? Probably. Maybe. We need to re-check at 50 days with an x-ray.

So, here we are, today, at day 50. X-ray day. Sailor is definitely pregnant – I don’t need an xray to prove that. I do, however, need one to try and determine how many puppies she has, because this is of vital importance in a c-section breed. In we go, then, to do an xray. A bargain, really, at just $140, and it shows us..

One puppy. Just one. One puppy that will still require a $2000 c-section, and follow up care for mom, and shots and registration and micro chipping and weaning and time off work to care for. One really, really expensive puppy. Which I’m keeping.

So, yeah. Dog breeding, it’s how I’m making my fortune. That, and the scratch and win tickets that will help me pay for all of this…

ps: just wanted to post this for all of the “you charge so much for your dogs that you must bathe in caviar” people…

Tessa woke up the other morning listing. She’s like a ship that’s lost it’s ballast – leaning to one side, head cocked in what should be a cute sort of tilt. Only it’s not cute, not at all. She’s having a hard time negotiating stairs and any kind of uneven ground. She’s barrel rolled herself a few times going down the outside steps, and we’re not even taking a chance when it comes to the basement stairs.

The veterinarian isn’t 100% sure what the problem is. It’s not her ears – they’re fine, thankfully. Tessa has been spared the ear problems which plague so many French Bulldogs. She certainly has bad teeth – she always has. One or two of her back molars need to come out, and she’s on antibiotics to clear up any lingering infection before we tackle this. I’m hesitant about putting her under anesthetic  for anything less than a life threatening condition, but bad teeth can cause all sorts of issues in a senior dog, and I guess we need to take the plunge and have them extracted.

Mostly, though, Dr. Boyd believes Tessa has had something commonly called “idiopathic neuropathy” – idiopathic being a fancy word “designating a disease having no known cause”, and neuropathy being “any diseased condition of the nervous system”. So, idiopathic neuropathy, meaning “We don’t know what it is, or what caused it, but it has something to with the nervous system”.

I’m consoling myself with the studies which seem to indicate that the majority of cases of idiopathic neuropathy just disappear, as mysteriously as they came. Already after a few short days, Tessa seems more steady on her feet.  All of this, of course, is a symptom of the greater truth, that my dog is aging. And, like of all of us who are aging, she’s become plagued with mystery ailments. A hip that clicks, hearing that’s failing, a bit more wobbly on her pins that she was in her youth.  I know it’s all to be expected, but none of it makes me happy.

Still, Tessa’s a remarkable healthy dog for both her breed and her age. Infirmity doesn’t stop her from occasionally charging and rolling the cat, or from staking out her claim when the puppies get too close to  her pillow. She still rules the house, with a little bit of help from me when it’s called for.

She’s also looking forward to making it to the Nationals in Minnesota in 2008, as am I.

Carol