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Progesterone Levels Through Pregnancy


Kustali
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Hello, i am wondering what the progesterone levels are supposed to be throughout a bitch's pregnancy.

What is a safe level and when is it time to supplement them if they need it?

Edited by HANNAH
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Hannah- If you have concerns about your girl's levels you really need to be talking to your vet. If levels do not increase at the required rate you can have complications, but you will need a vet to monitor these levels. Hope all goes well for you.

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Hi, sorry i should have made it more clear, my bitch is ok. I have talked to a few people who have had problems with their girls, so i am interested in learning more about this so i am prepared for if/when it happens to any of my own girls during pregnancy.

My vets here are not reproductive specialists and it is quite hard to get anyone to talk to you if you are not a client of theirs, so i thought i'd bring the subject here to learn more :rofl:

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Hi, sorry i should have made it more clear, my bitch is ok. I have talked to a few people who have had problems with their girls, so i am interested in learning more about this so i am prepared for if/when it happens to any of my own girls during pregnancy.

My vets here are not reproductive specialists and it is quite hard to get anyone to talk to you if you are not a client of theirs, so i thought i'd bring the subject here to learn more :laugh:

Hi Hannah- problems with progesterone levels are fairly uncommon, and difficult to diagnose until things progress to the point where you may be losing the litter. In short, if your line has a history of it, or you have had failed litters that you suspect were due to this issue, then you can speak with a vet about regular testing throughout the pregnancy to monitor levels. I am aware that progesterone boosters can be given, although I don't know the frequency or the success rate of this treatment - I would suspect that it would be subject to various factors.

There are also many other reasons for failure to conceive/maintain a pregnancy too, its not aways prog levels. I understand you don't have a repro vet in your local area, but you would be better off getting advice from them on this issue if you had real concerns.

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That's about as much as i know too :laugh:

There are a few different opinions on this. Some say supplement and some say don't, because they don't believe it is a problem.

If anyone can share their experience/s with their girls levels dropping during pregnancy and how you treated it that would be great.

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That's about as much as i know too :rolleyes:

There are a few different opinions on this. Some say supplement and some say don't, because they don't believe it is a problem.

If anyone can share their experience/s with their girls levels dropping during pregnancy and how you treated it that would be great.

We have just been through this and we were lucky we had a fantastic reproduction specialist to help us out. You learn a lot as breeder, some times its just hard but to then find someone who understands is such a relief.

We have a girl here who was mated just over 18 months ago. Confirmed in whelp, huge litter and a week later nothing. Mated again on her next season confirmed in whelp and a week later nothing. Both times went off her food and a massive case of the runs. We happened to be talking to a greyhound breeder and he told us about a specialist reproduction vet here. Had heard about her but had not heard of any who had managed to get a litter. After talking to some more greyhound breeders we decided to contact her and now so pleased we did.

She did a full history and we went from there with a surgical AI. Confirmed pregnancy at 4 weeks and a progesterone test to see what her levels were as this vet was sure that her levels fell away resulting in the loss of the previous litters. Her levels after that test were 52 about half of what it should have been. She had a progesterone injection that day and then weekly with reduced doses towards the end of the pregnancy. We now have a wonderful litter that are 5 weeks old and thriving.

Hope this is what you were after

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We were told when did a prog test at 4 weeks with one of our bitches, that below 20 - no viable litter, between 20 & 40, litter in danger, supplement with progesterone, and above 40 would be good, much higher great. Our bitch was sitting at 80 and carried her litter to term.

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Silverhaze, does your vet do the prog tests routinely during pregnancy to check their levels?

We did a prog check because she absorbed her previous litter, and both the previous litter and the next one she stopped eating, so we decided to check the prog level first to see where we were at. After establishing that she was pregnant, and at a healthy prog level, we proceeded along as per normal, doing our best to keep her eating. She had a normal litter. If she had had a lower prog level which gave us concern, or left us supplementing her progesterone, them i'm sure regular prog tests would have occured.

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Here you go :o

http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?show...hl=progesterone

nb: the normal range is not known absolutely as there is not data on all bothces ..

so for some bitches it may be 'normal' for them to have a prog level of 40 and carry a pregnancy

I think the absolute cut off is very low around 7.

Our vet said that at 52 on the prog test she would be close to losing the litter.
Silverhaze, does your vet do the prog tests routinely during pregnancy to check their levels?

We did a prog check because she absorbed her previous litter, and both the previous litter and the next one she stopped eating, so we decided to check the prog level first to see where we were at. After establishing that she was pregnant, and at a healthy prog level, we proceeded along as per normal, doing our best to keep her eating. She had a normal litter. If she had had a lower prog level which gave us concern, or left us supplementing her progesterone, them i'm sure regular prog tests would have occured.

We only had one progesterone test done at 4 weeks the day we had the pregnancy confirmed. Results back in 2 hours and the first lot of progesterone given that afternoon and then every week after that. No more progestone tests just the weekly dose
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This is so interesting :-)

Are there any findings linking lowered prog levels with the bitch becoming inappetant ?

Just heard a few times of the two seeming to go together.

fifi

I will be going to the fertility vet next week and I will ask her Fifi.

Interesting as well I was talking to a breeder and she tells me they cannot get a girl pregnant. Her levels were off the scale at 5 days into her cycle and dogs will not go near her.

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This is so interesting :-)

Are there any findings linking lowered prog levels with the bitch becoming inappetant ?

Just heard a few times of the two seeming to go together.

fifi

I will be going to the fertility vet next week and I will ask her Fifi.

Interesting as well I was talking to a breeder and she tells me they cannot get a girl pregnant. Her levels were off the scale at 5 days into her cycle and dogs will not go near her.

I did ask Fifi. SHe tells me there are many reasons for bitches to go off there food and sometimes the two (lowering progesterone) go hand in hand.

With our girl that absorbed she went off her food but also had a very bad case of the runs and was very lethargic

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  • 2 months later...

I will ask you hear Mastini and my others post in the other thread is unanswered

Did you calculate the days right ?

Some count 63 days from mating, and not ovulation.

With frozen you normally inseminate 3 days after ovulation, happy to be corrected if im wrong?

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I will ask you hear Mastini and my others post in the other thread is unanswered

Did you calculate the days right ?

Some count 63 days from mating, and not ovulation.

With frozen you normally inseminate 3 days after ovulation, happy to be corrected if im wrong?

I thought it was 2 days after ovulation, cause my vet stressed 61 days is D day. And under no circumstances was I to allow her to go past 63 days. The books I have on the subject also say 61 days from insemination for frozen semen.

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Sorry SwaY I must of missed you..

I went by date of insemination as wasn't told otherwise :bottom: This was my first frozen AI, infact my first AI and didn't know there was a difference in calculating dates.

But she went into whelp on day 60 anyway and the last pup was deceased by at least day 58 going by it skin break down.

Thanks for that for future reference and sheds a little more light on what happened but i'm guessing there is more to your train of thought??

anything I can learn from this is really important. I keep looking for answers and wondering where I went wrong.

Spoke at length to Dr Girling yesterday and he says there could be any number of reasons and next time we will do all tests and monitor her intensely. He also said he highly recomends mating her on her next season as now her chances of pyometra are so much greater :D

Edited by Mastini
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Sorry SwaY I must of missed you..

I went by date of insemination as wasn't told otherwise :eek: This was my first frozen AI, infact my first AI and didn't know there was a difference in calculating dates.

I have been reading into frozen semen of late, and it seems a common error is calculating that dates.

I asked about the dates because I had calculated when Mina was due, and when Nic's baby was due and I was pretty sure Mina would be due first.

At one stage I even said Mina would go first.

When you went back to Dr Girling for your ultrasound did he give you a due date?

Seems strange no one mentioned it to you, maybe they thought you knew?

927d2c51.jpg

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