The Cost of Raising A Litter

[lvoss]

To add to my breeding expenses today we went in for a surgical insemination.

Costs:
$45 for semen preparation
$450 for surgical implantation
$90 for weekend/holiday service

Total $585 and anyone who knows anything about these services will tell you that is dirt cheap especially in California!

Add that to the running total and we are up to $2546.48 and still no way to know if we will actually have any pups.

[lvoss]

Update on costs. Today's ultrasound $148.75. And great news, it looks like at least 3 pups and maybe 4.

So the new total is $2695.21

[sharronhurlbut]

This shows the effort, time and cost that SHOULD go into breeding a quality basenji.
Its not just "putting" 2 dogs together…

[lvoss]

For anyone interested, here is a copy of the ultrasound.

[LiveWWSD]

Awesome, Thank you Lisa.

[sharronhurlbut]

Cool, thanks for sharing.

[Schouiffy]

awwwwesome. thanks for sharing the baby photos!

[Jarodkjv]

Congratulations! You were pretty excited before TC ever got there, so you must be REALLY excited now.

[Ninabeana26]

Thanks for sharing all of this great information! I am certainly grateful for breeders like you, Pat & Midge so that I can have my healthy perfect boy without having to do any of that work myself! I just don't know how you gals find the time!! :p

[lvoss]

We are very excited about our upcoming litter. Having a litter is a lot of work but there are also rewards including haveing a chance to get to know the new puppy owners.

[lvoss]

TC went in for a wellness check today. She needed to get her Heartworm prescription up to date, so the vet also did another ultrasound. The appointment added another $25 to the running total which now comes to $2720.21 and we got these really cool pics to show off. You can see spines on some of them now. I think one of the pics is actually a second one of the same puppy but my mom was a little unclear about the details.

[etzbseder]

I love this tread. It is very informative, and a form of it should be turned into a sticky.

IVOSS: I think you may go over my original estimate of 3000 for a litter. Although I wouldn't include the fanconi test as part of it, because it is getting more common to have the test long before a possible breeding, and some breeders even are testing all the pups before selling them. (which is nice)

[tanza]

By the time you add in just the Vet fees after whelping, lvoss will be way over $3000

[mauigirl]

I also love this thread, very cool. Especially the baby pics. I know I"ll be thinking about more than just Halloween on Halloween. Are the pups homes all in CA, southern or northern or both? Man if I still lived in the Inland Empire I would very feebly ask if I can come over and help socialize.

But I'm lucky that I will get to do that here with yodeldog's litter
Can't wait for EVERYONE's puppy pictures! And it's going to be all around the same time too. Maybe we should make a special place for that on the forum…

[EskiLovr]

A new arrivals thread or topic heading would be cool!!

Good idea Mauigirl!!

[lvoss]

When it comes to homes, it sort of depends on what TC gives us but most of the litter will be in California, Southern and Northern. One may go to North Carolina.

We love having people come over to help socialize puppies. My mom is already asking people to come over and play with puppies when they are old enough. Me and my husband will be going down for both the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays so we can get in some time playing with the pups. Luckily on Thanksgiving weekend there is also some lure coursing and racing events down there so I can wear out my dogs and then head over for a puppy fix.

[mauigirl]

@lvoss:

One may go to North Carolina.

One of these days we're going to drive to the Carolinas for coursing. Would be cool to meet the people behind Suddanly Basenjis and Jokuba Basenjis. Then we might get to meet TC too

[dmcarty]

I have a question here for those of you doing ultrasound and xrays on preggers moms. Are you doing it to: determine how many puppies, because you didn't think she was preggers, because you fear some crisis or ??????????

I can say only once has any animal (basenji) I owned been x-rayed and that was because of a singleton and we were not sure it was the only puppy. The bloodhounds different story because not being always the natural whelpers that B's are - it's important to know when you're done or to pinpoint some issues that might indicate C-section.

I have noted that vets are 'recommending' this now and trying to determine if it is for $ or if it has given some valid information?

[tanza]

I do ultrasound to know if preggers…. I like to be able to let my puppy people know we are really on our way and we should have puppies.... I don't go too much by the count with the ultrasound, depending on the Vet. I do xrays 3 days before the due date, cause I do want to know how many we will have.... Then if you have 4... and the bitch had 3 and seems to be stopping and its been awhile.... instead of "I guess she is done" you know there is still one there... and I can finalize to my puppy people exactly what we have as far as numbers and then if we will not have one for someone at the bottom of the list, we can refer them on.....

[lvoss]

I do the ultrasound to confirm pregnancy, like Pat I want to be able to tell my puppy buyers that there really are puppies expected. Also, it is nice to see that they are progressing normally. I don't normally do a second ultrasound but have found that both my mom's vet and mine will do them for free if we come in for something else just to satisfy their curiosity that the pregnancy is on track.

I do the x-ray to make sure that I know how many pups to expect, I want to know if I need to call the vet.

I know of one litter of Manchesters that may have been saved if the owner had done ultrasound or x-ray. All the pups were in one horn and the bitch's uterus twisted when she went into heavy labor because of the uneven distribution. If they had known before labor that the pups were so unevenly distributed they may have been able to save the pups by doing a c-section.