Saginaw Valley Equine Clinic is the Midwest's leader in horse fertility. Most of the mares at our clinic are bred using artificial insemination after a series of reproductive examinations performed at a breeding farm or here at the clinic. We are Michigan's leader in the number of pregnant mares, largely because our experience brings proficiency. We offer artificial insemination with fresh cooled semen, deep uterine insemination with frozen semen and embryo transfer. Our clinic is located near MBS International Airport, ensuring the freshest semen deliveries. Among the benefits of SVEC's fertility services:

• Michigan's leader in number of pregnant mares
• Close proximity to MBS International Airport for in-bound semen
• We take care of late-night semen pickup
• Fantastic facilities for your mare's stay
• The latest in technology and techniques
• Complete attention to your mare's needs

Mare Fertility

The unfortunate thing about a mare's value is it seems to increase right about the time her fertility dramatically decreases. If a mare's fertility is in question, you need a specific diagnosis to definitively resolve her problem. Among the Saginaw Valley Equine Clinic advantages:

• Serial Reproductive Examinations: What happens to the mare's uterus post-breeding?
• Low-Volume Uterine Lavage: Discovers low-lying or deep uterine inflammation
• Uterine Culture and Cytology: Searches for endometritis, the leader of mare infertility
• Hysteroscopy (Endoscopy): Specialized equipment to look into the uterus on a monitor

Embryo Transfer

Saginaw Valley Equine Clinic offers equine embryo transfer to owners and breeders of high-quality horses. Embryo transfer is an option that many mare owners have utilized for the following reasons:

• Mares produce a foal without prolonged interruptions in race, show or work
• Production of more than one foal out of the same mare in one breeding season
• Production of a foal out of a mare not able to carry her own to term
• Late foaling mares can produce a foal and remain open for the next season
• Owners do not want to risk the health of the mare producing the foal

Embryo transfer involves a mare whose owner would like to produce a foal from her without her actually having to maintain the pregnancy or go through the foaling process. This mare is called the donor mare because she is the mare that donates the fertilized embryo that will become the fetus in the recipient (or receiving) mare.
The donor mare's reproductive tract is monitored every 12-24 hours simultaneously with a group of recipient mares to ensure a synchronous environment for the embryo. The donor mare is bred just prior to ovulation. On Day 7 post-ovulation, the donor mare is prepped and a catheter is placed in the uterus for lavaging, or flushing of the uterine contents. The flush fluid contents are passed through a dish with a filter screen to isolate the 6- to 8-day embryo for transfer into one of our recipient mares. If all goes as planned, the new recipient mare will propagate the donor mare's foal for the next 11 months and produce a live foal. SVEC advantages for embryo transfer include:

• Unusually high success rate of transfer
• Only recipient herd of this size in the Midwest
• Individual attention to particular donor mare needs – we will accommodate most requests and ensure them to completion
• High-quality recipient mares
• Individual stalls, ensuring mares are handled and tied every day
• Spacious pastures and closed herds, lowering stress
• Heavily vaccinated for great colostrum antibodies for the foal
• De-wormed and trimmed every six weeks

Stallion Fertility

When it comes to questions about breeding soundness and semen evaluation for your stallion, Saginaw Valley Equine Clinic helps you find the answers.

• Is my stallion fertile?
• Will we be able to ship semen?
• What extender and ratio is best?

Often times, these questions and others are answered by collecting and evaluating the semen's microscopic anatomy and motility. Furthermore, if the semen will be cooled and shipped, SVEC utilizes numerous extenders to test the semen's viability over a 72-hour period and give you a report with our findings. This exam saves a lot of time, money and heartache of an unsuccessful breeding season. SVEC advantages in stallion fertility include:

• Speedy and efficient collection and shipment of fresh, cooled semen
• Ship-in collections: If the stallion owner is notified by 11a.m., the stallion can ship into SVEC for collection, evaluation and packaging of the semen for same-day or next-day service. We take care of the shipment via airlines or FedEx.
• SVEC is conveniently located 5 miles from MBS International Airport and FedEx, ensuring easy shipments of fresh, cooled semen.
• Semen Cryopreservation" SVEC collects, cryopreserves (freezes) and stores stallion semen for future use. We have tanks that can be utilized to store the semen for an infinite amount of time.