Blood Pregnancy Test

[Trixie Club Calves]

We drew blood on two heifers today. Who would be 39 and 40 days bred.



First heifer (strawberry) looks pretty clearly bred.


Second heifer (Jewel) there's a second line there although it's not as clear. She'd be 39 days if she were bred.

Both will get ultrasounded around 60 days to confirm for sure

 

[Double R Ranch]

First two tests look pregnant. Second tests I'd say open. I've thought those faint lines were pregnant before only to find out they weren't pregnant. Please let us know the ultrasound results.

 

[Trixie Club Calves]

First two tests look pregnant. Second tests I'd say open. I've thought those faint lines were pregnant before only to find out they weren't pregnant. Please let us know the ultrasound results.

I definitely will.
She's my show heifer so we're with her almost all the time and haven't notice any heats or anything. But who knows. Curious to see what the ultrasound shows

 

[Mountaintown Creek Ranch]

We actually quit using the Idexx tests because we got false negatives and false positives so we gave up and just went back to palpating them.
On one of the best cows we have, the test showed that she was open.
I had to go in the hospital so it was quite a few months before I was able to get back to her.
so we synced her with the rest of the cows, lutilize made her abort a 4-month-old calf.

 

[Dsth]

I tried the at home blood preg check and didn't take long for me to tell it wasn't accurate enough for me to keep using. may be alright for cows 75 days or longer but if you want to check for early pregnancy, you end up with a lot of test results like your faded red line. at that point you wonder if it is a yes or a no.

 

[Brute 23]

I've always used the blood test as a general showing if the group is bred or not. If you had major bull problems, cows slinging calves, etc. I would not trust any of them for an animal by animal basis.

 

[Trixie Club Calves]

I tried the at home blood preg check and didn't take long for me to tell it wasn't accurate enough for me to keep using. may be alright for cows 75 days or longer but if you want to check for early pregnancy, you end up with a lot of test results like your faded red line. at that point you wonder if it is a yes or a no.

They're all over the place. It sure didn't help my wanting to know if they were bred or not and has me wondering even more. We just had them in the chute so thought I'd see.

I was already planning on getting them ultrasound around 60 days to actually see that there's a baby in there

 

[Double R Ranch]

We actually quit using the Idexx tests because we got false negatives and false positives so we gave up and just went back to palpating them.
On one of the best cows we have, the test showed that she was open.
I had to go in the hospital so it was quite a few months before I was able to get back to her.
so we synced her with the rest of the cows, lutilize made her abort a 4-month-old calf.

I started with the idexx and had a lot of false results also. I gave the Biotracking ones a try when they came out and got better results but have had questionable ones like the OP posted (second set). I took them as pregnant because of the faint line but they have all proven to be open. I'm interested to see what the OP finds at ultrasound. So sorry about the loss of the calf.

I tried the at home blood preg check and didn't take long for me to tell it wasn't accurate enough for me to keep using. may be alright for cows 75 days or longer but if you want to check for early pregnancy, you end up with a lot of test results like your faded red line. at that point you wonder if it is a yes or a no.

I agree with this. I'm debating not using them anymore and going back to sending in blood samples on 30 AI breedings. It's frustrating especially with the cost of the tests to not have a convincing result.

 

[texoman]

I have had good luck with the idexx blood test. I would call both positive. I'm certainly interested in the ultrasound, too.

 

[Mountaintown Creek Ranch]

I have had good luck with the idexx blood test. I would call both positive. I'm certainly interested in the ultrasound, too.

Have you done many?
We had success initally, until we started doing a lot of tests.
We contacted the manufacturer to ask about +/- % accuracy but they never responded.
They also didn't respond after we contacted them about losing that calf.
I really thought they would be interested in finding out the lot or serial number of the tests that failed.

 

[texoman]

Have you done many?
We had success initally, until we started doing a lot of tests.
We contacted the manufacturer to ask about +/- % accuracy but they never responded.
They also didn't respond after we contacted them about losing that calf.
I really thought they would be interested in finding out the lot or serial number of the tests that failed.

I have used exactly 120 (that's how many I have purchased and used) of the idexx including 6 that I double checked because I had enough blood and the line was not clear or absent. To my knowledge, they were all correct. Every one that tested positive calved at the right time except for a couple with other problems. The ones that tested negative were way beyond the minimum of 30 days required for the test. All that said, I only test a select few and not the entire herd. I also keep pretty good notes on them so I have a decent idea of what should be going on. In theory anyway. I believe they advertised upper 90 percent accuracy, but it has been a while since I looked at the ads.

 

[Hpacres440p]

We're going to do a small sample today with Pregnostx, sending in confirmatory blood on any that are questionable. What's challenging is that the Biopryn kits all use red top tubes, the in-home uses purple top (they encourage a full sample collection at time of collection in case a send-in is needed). I have been assured by the Pregnostx rep that Biopryn can use the purple top tubes-I believe same company for both? Anyone else have that experience?

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Red tops are plain "empty" vacitainers.

The purple tops had EDTA which is an anticoagulant that chelates the calcium in the blood.

This from my nurse wife.

I've been told by the biopryn lab I send to that they MUST be in a red top....

 

[Brute 23]

Lab we use requires red tops.

 

[Hpacres440p]

Red tops are plain "empty" vacitainers.

The purple tops had EDTA which is an anticoagulant that chelates the calcium in the blood.

This from my nurse wife.

I've been told by the biopryn lab I send to that they MUST be in a red top....

That was my understanding also, but wanted to make sure my interpretation in people world carried over to bovine preg testing as well.

 

[Hpacres440p]

Just an update-the lab we use in Navasota said that purple top tubes also work (they do Biopryn).