Newton Sparks, [06 May 2024 at 15:25:13]: Good day. Any wise words of advice on how to collect semen for fertility in a leopard? I have an El Toro and a ram probe, I will dart it before starting the procedure…. Morne de la Rey, [06 May 2024 at 19:12:20]: Hi Newton The ram probe doesn't work that well. I have other probes that you can rent at excessive volumes of biltong from me. Then you also can use a catheter into the prostate....of the leopard. What's the reason? Testing, IVF, semen storage for biobank, AI. Makes a difference what technique you use. Newton Sparks, [07 May 2024 at 16:12:42]: Hi Morne. Thanks. I will maybe try the catheter first👍 Newton Sparks, [09 May 2024 at 17:16:25]: Good day. I tried to collect semen from the leopard yesterday. After Morne and Gerhardus were so kind to phone me and discuss the various procedures, I tried collecting with ultrasound guided catheterisation of the prostatic urethral area. Using a cat catheter, I could manage to get some cloudy fluid which looked like watery/milky semen, but under the microscope I could not see any sperm. The field showed many cellular components - - mostly epithelial cells. I couldn't visualise the catheter in the prostate – the catheter was too short. I proceeded with a thin feeding tube, which I could follow all the way into the prostate with the ultrasound. However, I couldn't extract any semen or fluid with this catheter. What worried me was that the leopard had only very rudimentary barbs on the penis, with the testes being about 3 x 1.5 cm each. This leopard is however covering the female regularly every 3 months according to the owner. Any ideas about this? I would have expected to get at least a couple of dead sperm somewhere..... Hendrik Hansen, [09 May 2024 at 17:34:01]: Newton. Try a fine needle aspirate of the epididymis. Newton Sparks, [10 May 2024 at 07:25:48]: Will keep that in mind next time. Thanks
