Q: Dear Ms. Ahmed, thank you for writing your book “Shipping Semen?”. Books that are this subjective specific are hard to find. I am in the process of breeding my mare using transported cooled semen and this is my first time. I did have a question and would respect your opinion on the subjective. A summary of the events are as follows:

My mare was followed during her heat cycle during the middle of March. She produced a follicle which grew to 3.8cm and then regressed. She was subsequently given an injection of Lutalyse on April 5th. My vet then came to my home the following Monday (April 9th) morning at 12:00 noon and found my mare to have a 4.2cm follicle. She requested that I go ahead and call the stallion manager and request semen be shipped counter to counter. She went ahead and gave her an injection of HCG.

I picked up the semen and the vet arrived by 8:15 p.m. She had more tenderness on the right ovary than the AM visit. She was inseminated with one packet of semen. My vet did not at that time perform an Ultrasound.

She returned the following day at about 3:00 p.m. She performed an ultrasound and found that she had ovulated. Her words were that she had ovulated “last night”. At that time, she indicated that she did not see the need to inseminate the second pack. She was very excited and said that we had “timed it just right”.

I did ask her why she did not inseminate the second pack and she indicated that she felt it had been more than 6 hours since ovulation. I think I have read this in the literature that there is a 6 hour window but am now worried that maybe I should have pushed her to inseminate the second dose.

Would you please give me your opinion on this. She is coming back to ultrasound her at about day 18. Thank you so much for your help. Maybe I am just worrying unnecessarily about this as it is my first time.

A: Thank you for your kind words about my book, I am glad that it has been a helpful resource for you. I read with interest your story regarding your mare. I must say that it is very easy for me to step back and critique another person’s work, since hindsight has 20/20 vision. In all fairness, I will say that it appears that your vet made an honest effort to get your mare bred on time. The fact that she did not inseminate the second packet does not bother me as much as the HCG injection. I think that she should not have given the HCG injection prior to inseminating. I receive emails daily with this same issue and it is the most common factor that can be easily detected. If a follicle is big and soft, and you give the HCG injection, the follicle can ovulated very quickly. HCG is given intravenously and it immediately goes to work. Two factors I am concerned with and these are that she was given an HCG injection and that she had a tender ovary later in the day with no ultrasound. I suspect that she may have ovulated prior to the first insemination and without the ultrasound, we cannot be sure. I would hope for the best because we cannot change anything right now. If she did not catch, I would make these two adjustments: