You need to know what is included in your breeding package to compare but I know a stud which charge £155 per cycle which covers scan, insemmination, corolon injection, 16 day scan. You are right to go for a package though, as I think you get better value for money
I think £350 is a bit steep - I certainly know of studs/AI centres that offer AI packages with scans for £120-£180 in various places around the country.
I would be a bit careful about buying a package that includes a check for the foal - what if the AI is unsuccessful, mare reabsorbs or there is some other abortion-type issue (sorry to be grim, but you must consider these things). Sounds to me, like a way of tacking on extra money for a service the vet might not have to provide.
My vet package was £500 - so I'd say yours was more than reasonable. However, another thing to take in to consideration is the expertise of your vet. If he is experienced at AI'ing - quite frankly I'd pay anything!
£500!!! What for?! There is nothing wrong with paying the right price for an experienced vet, but £500 is extortionate. You could probably drive the mare to the continent, get her AI'd there, have a slap-up meal and come back for less than £500!
Well Amy was AI'd 5 times. Scanned 8 times. My vet broke up his holiday when she came in to season. He scanned her at 9.00pm on a Sunday night after returning from Badmington - and was back with me at 8.00am the following morning to scan again.
That's just the half of it - my mare was very, very tricky.
So actually my £500 was money very well spent - as individually all of the visists, scans and insemations would have added up to much more than that.
Obviously if she's got pregnant and actually kept the bloomin thing first time then yes it would have been pricey.
But my vet is hugely experienced, will drop everything for you - and offers and exceptional service. To my mind that is worth £500 and the rest.
So expensive for some - but as we know it's not a cheap game.
Fair enough - in that case, £500 total is a good package for you: if you can find experienced vets who will do that, then it's wondeful! However, Thistle's first post stated £350 per cycle.... so for you that would have cost £1750!!!! (assuming that she cycled 5 times).
It's such a shame that scanning is so expensive - the actual AI-ing needn't be expensive at all.
Amymay was that Ron Williams you used if so he is very good and considering he does have to travel a way to most people i dont think it was too bad.
Some of the places we have sent semen out to have cost that much and mare has been in foal 1st time and very straight forward.
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It's such a shame that scanning is so expensive - the actual AI-ing needn't be expensive at all.
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Tbh - it's all about adding on costs to make money where you can. Large Animal practices are just not cost effective. My mare was always scanned and AI'd at home - my vet had a portable scanner. But it was his expertise and service that I was paying for at the end of the day - and £500 over a 2 year period of trying to get the old bag pregnant was very, very reasonable.
However, if I were doing it again I would go down a different route. My mare eventually went to stud for a natural covering which did the trick (for about 4 months anyway
), and so I doubled my costs.
Next time - mare would simply go to stud and stay there until she was pregnant either by AI if the stallion didn't cover naturally - or by natural cover.
Ours do a package for £220 a cycle though not sure whether that's with orwithout VAT, which can be used for either chilled or frozen (thought the frozen was an especially good deal!) but that is excluding livery with them or travelling out to the mare at home.
I wonder if it is a case of swings or roundabouts when you are talking about the costs though. Yes the AI package is cheaper at a stud but you have mares keep on top of that. Mine is at home and lives on fresh air and unshod, so not costing me a great deal.
my worry about sending her away is that she is a bit fat and is muzzled when out at grass except for 2 hours a day. She also comes in for about 8 hours and just has the others hay leftovers to eat. I would worry about her getting laminitis if out 24/7 at stud.
I wonder whether I could negotiate for an all in package cost from the vet irrelavant of number of cycles.
I do feel it is a bit unfair though as we are only a few miles from the vets and the package cost is the same throughout their huge area.
The last thing she'll get at stud is laminitis. She will come back slim and trim. Most studs simply don't have the quality of grazing - and if they do they keep it for mares with foals at foot. The weight issue was my concern for Amy who is a fatty. But she came back very slim.
I would certainly go back to your vet and as them for an 'In Foal' package - rather than a clyclical one. I don't see what area size has to do with the price.
The area size is relavant to the visit cost which is included in the price. When I need a vet they rarely have to make a special visit, they just call in on their way past as they frequently go past the end of our road. Yet even so they still charge the same visit costs within the stud package.
Perhaps I should send Dolly off to stud for a long term visit to slim her down.
we used the equine clinic local to us(which has an AI expert) it is also where the stallion we used stands, the costs were £350 NFFR for the stallion and a package of 3 cycles including AI (fresh) sacns and any injections was £275. Our Mare caught first time ( she was very trima nd eventing fit when she went and she had just done a week of PC camp) but this was still a reasonable price i thought. they charged £6 a day for grass livery, she only needed to be there a week! think it depends on how easy the mare is to get in foal and how fertile the stallion is. But would definatly recommend a package.
Our equine vets quoted me £500.00. But to be fair, they'd have to travel some way.
A friend put his mare in foal to a stunning coloured warmblood (one of the well known jumpers but I can't remember who!) and the stud fee was £700.00 so he didn't have £500.00 to spend on AI. He went to another local vets who said bring her over for the week, he scanned her once, then scanned her at midnight but she wasn't quite ready so scanned her at 6am, inseminated her, scanned her twice after (at my friends place) and the total bill was £117.50
I used the same vets for my girls x-rays (hips) and they were £150.00 cheaper! Mare mentioned above had a gorgeous little filly with four white stockings and a blaze!
Mine is £200 for everything, until she gets in foal. It includes all scans, the actually AIing, bringing in drugs etc. But doesn't include livery at the vets.