However, you missed the point of keeping her separate from Brenn. It's not to time her breeding. It's to prevent her from breeding. I have to take her to Gretna unfertilized. Open. Receptive to having one of Ms. Fermoy's fertilized embryos transferred to her. She's going to be a surrogate mother for Ms. Fermoy's calf.
It really worked out better than I could have imagined. I served the visitors grass fed Dexter T-bone steaks, and they were so impressed that they bought both of my steers. Now I will have the money to do some things. Capitalism is working!
It also worked out perfect because I called the clinic today and found out that Dr. Fulper had AI'd Ms. Fermoy at the same time Bambi was in standing heat, so they will be perfectly synchronized together. He will flush Ms. Fermoy next Thursday.
I'm to deliver Bambi to him that same day, so she can be available. If he gets any fertilized embryos this time, he will transfer one fresh into Bambi. The embryo will never be frozen. He says it increases the chance of success by a couple of percentage points. I THINK he said that his success rate was 85% with fresh transfer and a couple of percentage points less if frozen.
I'm to leave Bambi in the pen at least until Saturday afternoon, to insure that she remains open. No possibility of a late breeding. Then I can turn her out to graze with the herd until time for the transfer.
When I bring her home from the embryo transfer, I can turn her right out with the herd.
Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?
Now wish us luck with the embryo transfer and having the embryo implant and grow in Bambi. Then wish us luck with an uneventful birth.
How many of you have done this before? You should share your experiences.
Here's the story I got from my vet about embryo transfers:
Ms. Fermoy will be given a number of injections to make her shed more eggs than she usually would. She'll be brought into heat and AI'd to fertilize the eggs. The fertilized eggs will develop into embryos that will swim around freely in the womb for up to 14 days before implanting on the wall.
They wait for the embryos to develop as far as they can, then flush them out while they're still free swimming. This is done on the seventh day after fertilization. They strain the embryos out of the flushing fluid, examine and grade them under a microscope, and either use them immediately or freeze them.
The frozen embryos will remain 7 days old forever, until thawed.
A recipient cow must be prepared by either using lutalyse to induce a heat or observing a natural heat and marking the time of 'standing' heat. Seven days after the time of standing heat, the cow is carrying a single, unfertilized egg in her womb. She's waiting for it to implant and grow. It won't, because it wasn't fertilized. Instead, on her seventh day a 7-day-old fertilized embryo from another cow is placed in her womb. It will swim around a bit, then implant on the wall and grow. She won't know it's not her embryo and it will grow and she'll give birth in a normal fashion.
If the embryo is frozen, it is always ready for transfer, as soon as the recipient cow is ready.
It takes some precise timing to have the natural mother ready to flush on her seventh day and have the recipient cow ready to receive on her seventh day, both at the exact same time. Then you can transfer the live embryo directly. No freezing required.
This is what happened just by luck with Ms. Fermoy and Bambi. We're going to have a fresh, live transfer instead of a frozen transfer.
Bambi went into the trailer so readily and we made the 3 hour trip. Dr. Fulper was ready when we got there.
Ms. Fermoy was in a pasture with a huge Angus cow and two Giant Holsteins and a couple of others. She looked so small and lost among them.
She went into the chute to be prepared for flushing. The Dr. had to give her a spinal block. He said she's had her tail broken before and there is a lot of arthritis in the joints. He couldn't get the needle between the vertebrae of her tail head, so he switched to a smaller needle. That worked. He said she'd be ready in about two minutes.
He hung a bag of flushing fluid high on a post. It had two tubes joined together with a one-way valve in between. one tube ran down to a container with a filter in it. Dr. Fulper put one arm in her colon and used that hand to guide the hoses into her uterus. He opened the valve and let fluid fill her uterus, then he 'milked' the fluid back out the other tube with his colon hand. Repeats until all the fluid has been used.
The fluid coming out of her ran into the container, where the filter retained the embryos. The fluid ran through onto the ground. He quickly took the container into the lab room. In there, he used different fluids from two syringes to wash everything off of the filter and into a shallow glass dish. He prepared a sterile plastic receptacle with fluid from a third syringe. He used a microscope to locate the eggs in the solution. A special tool sucked up any egg he found.
He found four eggs this time. Unluckily, three of them had not taken, and were infertile. Only one had prgressed beyond the single cell stage. He let me look through the microscope at them.
The one fertile embryo, a 7 day old embryo, was set aside, while he fiished with Ms. Fermoy. He gave her a shot and turned her out of the chute.
Bambi was next into the chute. She got no anesthetic. Dr. went into her colon as with Ms. Fermoy. He checked to see if she had formed a corpus luteum (sp?). He said she felt great, and guided a long tubed syringe, containing the embryo, into her uterus. He milked her uterus to expel fluid, then pushed the plunger and inserted the embryo in it's place. Bambi was instantly pregnant.
If the pregnancy fails, if the embryo doesn't implant onto the uterine walls, she will come into heat in 2 weeks.
We turned Bambi out and she headed straight for the trailer and in. Ms. Fermoy followed her right in with no urging. We were ready to head home, 45 minutes after I arrived. Everything had gone perfectly. It's a shame that so many eggs didn't get fertilized.
It's possible she might be flushed again after a rest period. Two heats, at least. Halloween, maybe.
Both cows are back in the pasture tonight. Brenn was so happy to see them, he bugled and jumped straight up then ran to them. One quick stampede of the whole herd around the perimeter, and all was well again.
Joined: Sept 2007 Posts: 662 Location: Church Road, VA
Re: Saving Ms. Fermoy « Reply #21 on Oct 29, 2009, 8:31pm »
Bambi is carrying on with her pregnancy. That's one of Ms. Fermoy's embryos.
We have 6 more embryos frozen. They and the one in Bambi were all sired by SJDH Rafter Dee, a Legacy bull. Since Ms. Fermoy qualifies as Legacy, the calves will, too.
Tomorrow I leave to take Ms. Fermoy to the University of Georgia. She will be flushed twice more by them. I'm sending some semen from Brenn of Paradise. He carries E+ red, so there's a 50% chance that any embryos he fertilizes out of Ms. Fermoy will be E+/E+, like she is.
Maybe I can buy one of the Brenn/Fermoy embryos. I'd like that a lot. I really wanted her to have a Brenn calf while she was here, but she just couldn't do it. Her uterus was too old and fibroid to carry the calf to term. She readily got pregnant by him, she just couldn't carry past 4 months.
Ms. Fermoy has 2334 descendents, and even though she's qualified as a Legacy cow, not one of her descendents is. So these new calves that are born from the flushed embryos will be a first.
Joined: Sept 2007 Posts: 662 Location: Church Road, VA
Re: Saving Ms. Fermoy « Reply #22 on Oct 31, 2009, 11:55am »
It was the all time worst trip I've ever been on.
No more than 60 miles from home, a trailer tire exploded, leaving me stranded on the bridge over Lake Gaston. It took an hour, 6 lawnmower blades and a chunk of asphalt to get the spare tire put on.
In Burlington, another trailer tire exploded. I was able to drive slowly off the interstate on 3 wheels. A nice man led me to a tire dealer. It took 2 hours to get two tires replaced. He said the tires were 4 years older than the trailer. ?
Ms. Fermoy drew a crowd. I got to get up on my soap box and preach about Dexters.
Back on the way, just below Greensboro, the interstate was blocked by fire engines and police cars. We went on a 30 mile detour.
It happened again near Charlotte, but only a 5 mile detour this time.
Finally got to the way station where Ms. Fermoy was to spend the night. 10 hours instead of 6.
Ms. Fermoy was upset with me, but looked fine, otherwise. She went into a clean stall with lots of fresh hay and some sweetfeed.
I made it back home about 1:15 this morning. A smooth trip coming back. A quick nap and out I go to take care of the animals.
Joined: Sept 2007 Posts: 662 Location: Church Road, VA
Re: Saving Ms. Fermoy « Reply #25 on Oct 31, 2009, 8:54pm »
Rhonda,
The way station was for two reasons: It's too far for me to drive to the University of Georgia and return in one day. It's too long a trip for Ms. Fermoy to have to take in one sitting.
We had a plan that would break her trip into two legs that wouldn't tire her out. The way station is like a luxury hotel, so that's good.
I'm not supposed to drive farther than I can drive back in one day. I have to be home to take my pills and rest. Getting old is not for the faint of heart.
I got up extra early and got going. If all had worked out I would have been home by 10 PM. That's a little too long for me, but I was willing to stretch it for Ms. Fermoy.
At one time, it was suggested that I might be able to drop Ms. Fermoy off at Charles Townson's place, but I didn't know where he lived, just that he lived in South Carolina. So I told my telephone support crew not to worry about it. It turned out I drove right past his place on the way to the way station, about an hour earlier.
I even got a call from a man named Mike who offered to drive up from the University to transfer her into his trailer and take her back. I turned him down because it would have made Ms. Fermoy ride too far in one sitting.
People sure were nice about it. I met people who were so anxious to help. Life sure is an adventure.
I got to hug Ms. Fermoy one last time before leaving. I don't know if I'll ever see her again. She and I went through so much together that at times I felt she was mine. She's a very nice cow, with a personality that's easy to love.
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