Helping Breeders and Rescue Centres
For breeders, vets, animal charities and re-homing and rescue centres, knowing if a cat or dog is pregnant is a crucial question.
Planned Pedigree Mating or Unknown History Rescue
For breeders with a planned breeding programme and concern for the health of their breeding females, reliable testing for successful mating or insemination is essential.
For animal re-homing and rescue charities, the possibility that a new acquisition may be pregnant is a critical factor in the animal’s treatment and future prospects.
FASTest RELAXIN is an easy-to-use and simple-to-interpret diagnostic for an existing pregnancy, and a convenient indicator of pseudo-pregnancy (false pregnancy) and suspected spontaneous abortion.
Specific Indicators of Pregnancy in Dogs and Cats
The pregnancy hormone, relaxin is a specific indicator of pregnancy in dogs, cats and other carnivores. During pregnancy, Relaxin is produced within the ovaries, and by the placenta which sustains life in unborn pups and kittens.
Relaxin production begins as soon as a fertilised egg implants in the wall of the uterus (womb). Clinical tests show that relaxin can be detected in serum samples from week 4 of pregnancy in dogs and from day 15 in cats.
Relaxin levels rise quickly during pregnancy and remain high throughout. A fall-off is a sign of abortion or reabsorption of an unviable foetus, although levels may be sustained for up to 14 days after a failed pregnancy.
Monitored Relaxin Levels Help Prepare for the Happy Event
The hormone relaxin helps the expectant mother to meet the extra demands of pregnancy; raising the heart’s capacity to circulate the blood and increasing the flow of blood through the kidneys.
Relaxin also relaxes the ligaments of the pelvis easing the passage of the newborn through the birth canal. Monitoring the rise in relaxin provides a means of timing when ovulation and fertilisation took place, and so helps estimate the arrival date of the resulting litter.
While relaxin levels may confirm a pregnancy, they do not indicate how many pups or kittens might be expected. Ultrasound or other visualisation techniques may be required to estimate the likely number and viability of new arrivals.
One of Three Test Kits Supporting Breeders and Charities
FASTest RELAXIN is one of three veterinary diagnostic test kits supporting vets, breeders animal charities and rescue centres. FASTest LH monitors changing Luteinising Hormone (LH) levels as a method of determining the best time to mate, as well as helping determine when the litter will arrive. TARGET Canine Ovulation Test further helps breeders plan pregnancies so that litters of pups can be timed to match resources, avoiding unwanted, unhealthy and wasteful pregnancies.
To find out more about this range of veterinary diagnostic test kits visit phone us at 01798 874567 or email info@vetlabsupplies.co.uk
