Camelid Pregnancy Diagnosis - Anatomy & Physiology
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Rejection Behaviour
- Rejection of the male usually indicates that conception may have taken place.
- Not very reliable, since a persistent corpus luteum will also cause rejection.
- A persistent corpus luteum may cause continued rejection by a non-pregnant female.
Ultrasound Scanning
Ultrasound scanning is the most reliable method of diagnosing pregnancy and can be highly accurate. However, ~10% of established pregnancies fail, so a positive scan will not guarantee live cria.
- Possible only a few days after conception.
- For early scans, a rectal probe must be used.
- Rarely practiced because the procedure causes much stress to the female, which is undesirable if she is pregnant.
- More commonly scanned using a transabdominal probe from ~28 days onwards.
Blood Testing
- Blood tests to measure progesterone concentration.
- Level of progesterone required to maintain pregnancy varies.
- Cria have been born to dams with very low plasma progesterone concentrations.
- Variability makes blood tests unreliable.
Rectal Examination
- Manual palpation of the uterus through the rectal wall.
- Impractical for smaller females.
- Will cause undesirable stress to the female.
Foetal Heartbeat
- Specialist listening devices such as 'Sonicaid' can detect a foetal heartbeat from ~10 weeks of gestation.
- 80-90% accurat if used at ~10 weeks.
- Becomes more difficult as the foetus enlarges and slides down into the abdomen.