Week 7
Well, I have some good news! I finally was able to get some hands on experience this week. Whisper Kelly agreed to help me learn about this process. My goal for the week was to learn how to implant an embryo. Although we were unable to make it totally realistic, I found it very helpful. Because it is the wrong time of the year, we could not actually breed a cow. However, we could replicate it for the most part.
If you were actually going to implant an embryo, you would wait until the recipient cow was seven days post heat. This allows the embryo to be put into an environment very similar to the one it was extracted from (remember you flush the embryo from the donor cow at seven days). Next, we moved onto something I actually got to take part in. We started by ultrasounding the recipient cow to deermine which ovary has ovulated. Since only one side ovulates each time they come into heat, it is important to implant the embryo on that side, or it will not work. We did not have very good luck with this because she was not in the right part of her cycle. We were able to see the ovaries and eggs though, and that was pretty cool.
The next step would be to prepare for implanting the embryo. You would first need to unthaw the embryo. We didn't need to do this because we did not have a live straw. Next, you would prepare the gun, straw, and sleeve, making sure to keep everything very clean. Once you are ready, you give the cow a shot of Lidocaine (local anesthetic) between two vertebrae in her tail head. This allows her to be very still while you place the embryo.
Actually placing the embryo is very similar to AIing. The gun is inserted through the cervix, but instead of stopping there, you need to f further. This is where it gets a little tricky. You need to insert the gun into the side of the uterus that ovulated. because we could tell when we were ultrasounding, we just did whichever because it really didn't matter to us. You need to try to get as close to the ovary as you can. This mimics the location of a natural embryo at this point in its development. Once you reach the correct location, you release the embryo.
As a whole, I think my week went pretty well. I'm glad I was able to get some hands on experience for this process. It really helped me get a visual. Along with doing this, I was also going to go out to Fort Keogh on Wednesday. However, because of the government shut down, I wasn't able to go. I plan to stop in next week though. I reserved the last week of my project for more hands on stuff, so i will see what that brings. I'm not going to post my pictures from this week because I tried and everything froze . Stay tuned for the final week!
If you were actually going to implant an embryo, you would wait until the recipient cow was seven days post heat. This allows the embryo to be put into an environment very similar to the one it was extracted from (remember you flush the embryo from the donor cow at seven days). Next, we moved onto something I actually got to take part in. We started by ultrasounding the recipient cow to deermine which ovary has ovulated. Since only one side ovulates each time they come into heat, it is important to implant the embryo on that side, or it will not work. We did not have very good luck with this because she was not in the right part of her cycle. We were able to see the ovaries and eggs though, and that was pretty cool.
The next step would be to prepare for implanting the embryo. You would first need to unthaw the embryo. We didn't need to do this because we did not have a live straw. Next, you would prepare the gun, straw, and sleeve, making sure to keep everything very clean. Once you are ready, you give the cow a shot of Lidocaine (local anesthetic) between two vertebrae in her tail head. This allows her to be very still while you place the embryo.
Actually placing the embryo is very similar to AIing. The gun is inserted through the cervix, but instead of stopping there, you need to f further. This is where it gets a little tricky. You need to insert the gun into the side of the uterus that ovulated. because we could tell when we were ultrasounding, we just did whichever because it really didn't matter to us. You need to try to get as close to the ovary as you can. This mimics the location of a natural embryo at this point in its development. Once you reach the correct location, you release the embryo.
As a whole, I think my week went pretty well. I'm glad I was able to get some hands on experience for this process. It really helped me get a visual. Along with doing this, I was also going to go out to Fort Keogh on Wednesday. However, because of the government shut down, I wasn't able to go. I plan to stop in next week though. I reserved the last week of my project for more hands on stuff, so i will see what that brings. I'm not going to post my pictures from this week because I tried and everything froze . Stay tuned for the final week!
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