-----start----- repro 9/21 Note: the first few pages of handout have an outline of some basic behavior concepts. The rest is a summary for each spp of important points. You do not have to memorize all those numbers. If you read through it you should be fine for the exam. We have an hour less this year so we will cut to the chase and get right to clinical stuff without dwelling on concepts. So ignore first 7 pages except what is said in lecture today. About Friday's exam - normally all the stallion,mare and other stuff is done before we do behavior, so for this exam it will just cover the male. The female questions will be held til the end. book: behavior of domestic animals by Ben Hart the neat thing about domestic spp is they are similar - all have mate location aspect of repro behavior, all male will follow females, females have increased mobility, and precopulatory behavior is pretty analagous spp to spp. starts with nosing, sniffing, licking - olfactory investigation of genitals or urovaginal fluids on female's body or on ground. female will increase urination so there is more fluid to investigate. flehmen response - a particular response aimed at drawing nonvolatile fluids into vomeronasal organ - more or less developed in all domestic spp. Pig has no flehmen response but cat does, horse does (Mr. Ed did this, that's how they got him to talk). Most research has been done in goat, where they confirmed that pheromones were drawn in, and there are single synapse connections to the centers of control for the GnRH pulse. So this is important. signs of ejaculation - all these spp -ram, buck, bull - are single thrust ejaculators (does that sound familiar to anyone?). so sign of ejaculation in ram is throwing head back. a stallion will flip his tail in rhythm with the pulsating of the urethra. the other thing to know from front 7 pages - when considering reproductive behavior problems, consider the differences b/w domestic situation and the wild situation in which spp evolved. some are important. In fact, it may be pretty amazing that our domestic spp breed at all! Keep in mind - all domestic spp have relative social isolation during development - even foals out with other foals are kept in single sex groups, so this is very different from wild conditions. also, the animals we keep have delayed access to breeding - horse, dog - must prove itself before allowed to become a stud, right? this is also different. And while proving itself, it doesn't have access to normal social environment. Another thing to consider - in performance animals like dogs, horses - often animal is punished for showing sexual behavior! Stallions are taught NOT to respond to estrus fillies with normal sexual response, at shows, track, etc. also with horses, while performing, they might be given hormones and drugs that can interfere with reproductive function and behavior. Normal variation: factors - age, experience, breeding frequency, stimulus quality, physical condition on the male side, consider these if presented with a clinical case of inadequate sexual behavior. age - while generally we delay start of breeding, sometimes they want to start early. esp QH breeders- may want to breed prior to 2 yr old. So in handout normal ages of maturation are listed. a really important point is that testis maturation and onset of sexual behavior is tightly coupled in most spp. but within individuals, not always. a stallion at 16 mos with normal sized testicles may look ready, but might need a little longer to develop behavior. Or,may mount and try to breed before he's fertile. experience - if an animal is completely novice, he might have no idea what's going on. may take 2-3 sessions, or 2-3 weeks of sessions twice daily frequency of breeding- some industries push horses - some stallions breed 600 mares/yr by AI - if there's a low pregnancy rate they may end up being asked to breed a few times a day! libido wanes, wear and tear on hind legs. Some stallions are happy to breed a few times a day, others can't. note we are talking most about horses b/c we understand them best, and b/c wrt clinical reproductive behavior, only horses are dealt with that much. but the issues do apply to other spp. this comes up with sheep - beef cattle - they call it stocking density, the ratio of females to males - some males can handle 20 females, some can handle more, some less. in rams and beef bulls, they have to be evaluated prior to turn out, b/c once they are out there you won't know there is a problem until the females stay open. so they do libido testing. in australia you can't sell a beef bull til he's had a standard libido test. there is argument about how to do that. stimulus quality - this is an important issue for handbred animals. once we take breeding into our own hands (ha ha) we select the females, the time of mating, and often humans do a bad job of selecting an attractive stimulus for a male - often b/c she's not at the right part of cycle. or we're using a dummy mount, or a jump mare, and often those types of stimuli are suboptimal, so to speak, in terms of male response. often all you hae to do to fix this is get a natural estrus female. some stallions will go out and choose a mare from pasture and then you can collect him, even if he wouldn't go for the jump mare. physical condition - overweight animals have lower libido. lean animals do better, until they get almost cachectic. esp older animals - the thinner they are the better they seem to do. slide: test pen at king ranch, this is a standard libido test for bulls. Females are tethered in stanchion, ideally in natural estrus, but cow estrus is so short this is difficult. some aussie developed this test. Inter-male interaction is important in cattle for stimulating sexual behavior. males do better when competing with other males - cows are multi-sire herd breeders. so there are two males looking at each other over the fence, and they are penned with a cow. you count how many times they mount and serve a female. also asses agility, ability to mount and dismount. watch for 10 minutes. Common problems: -inadequate sexual arousal or interest- in all spp -unruly or specific misbehavior esp in stallions which are tough to handle -erection dysfunction -mounting problems - hind leg lameness in bull, etc. -ejaculation dysfunction - horse, bull, occ ram, boar. behavior is normal but after mounting no ejaculation occurs. -fertility limiting general behavior problems - we'll go through a couple of these. 1. inadequate arousal - slide of young QH - he came here after they tried many times to breed him. no erection, no response to female, even out in pasture. this is pretty common problem. about 25% in our rough estimation of stallions that are good show/race stallions will be slow starting novices. this one seen here, it's hard to see from this view, has conformation consistent with anabolic steroid use and has small testicles, so probably his repro systme was downregulated by steroid use. also had tendency to savage mare or handler. so if he was forced to hang out with mare for a while he'd get really aggressive and bite mare or handler. those cases usually take a lot of patience, behavior modification in direction of reassuring the animal. sometimes he'd relax in his stall and get an erection when no one was around, but would retract the penis when a person came over. he'd been exposed to "chain in hose technique" - put chain in garden hose, expose to mare, then whack penis with hose when it got erect - to discourage him from getting erections. also would whack him on knees to dominate him. Sounds like a really horrible trainer. slide: lesion from leaving the metal thermometer in the artificial vagina before the stallion used it. so horse poked into it. this horse had been a good breeder for a few years, now he was completely averse to breeding. seemed to be psychogenic after lesion healed. this is interesting - with male sexual behavior - it's almost like taste aversion - they can learn it on a single trial. like rats learn poison with one illness. horse can be totally normal breeder, have one bad experience, then stop breeding. that's weird, b/c breeding is such a strong drive, why does one bad episode stop it? plus, other individuals won't stop breeding from repeated bad experiences, so go figure. How to evaluate repro behavior: some are just immature - even if they had a couple good breedings. can be off and on for the first year. consider aversive experiences. handling quality esp for stallions or other handbred animals, is really important. in horse, prancing and screaming and high energy is NORMAL. but if you punish the horse every time he vocalizes, which people sometimes do, you will repress him. you need to know what is normal, and what to correct. correction must be well-timed, fair, and appropriate. handling is often the problem and then it is difficult to get people to change that. pain - in any type of sexual dysfunction, esp w/libido, consider pain. some animals tolerate a lot of pain - one pony was jumping over a fence to enter teaching herd, got himself tangled, LH leg is dangling, broken, etc - but he still bred one of the mares! some horses will breed three legged lame, others won't breed if they're just a tiny bit off in one joint. analgesics may help. over-use - how much has he been breeding? endocrinopathy - certainly, horses given anabolic steroids will not have normal endocrine profiles; may be delayed wrt onset of breeding. show stallions who breed in breeding season esp. In young horses esp, do hormone profiles. Corticosteroids not normally a problem, but consider stopping them anyway if they are being given. Note that we have no good academic labs working on stallion endocrinology. commercial labs do the assays but we don't always know how to interpret it, and lab's best interest may be served by putting horse on a drug.....so, this is a difficult area. also in old horse, may be testicular degeneration. slide: scar running across penis, red area on penis - this is a scar from a stallion ring, put on to discourage masturbation. this band of scar tissue runs around the entire circumference of penis. very subtle, but most common cause of slow starters is this kind of thing, either psychogenic, or due to pain from scar constricting penis. To increase arousal - general principles: one thing about domestic handling of males, for hand breeding they get little exposure to female compared to natural situation. normally, male is following female and checking her out constantly. he gets lots of stimulation. this drives his hormones. so for slow male, give him a lot of exposure to female. more natural, the better. -prolonged teasing -variety of mares, even letting him choose one -live mount mare as opposed to dummy -minimal distractions in breeding area. some horses can't deal with distractions -excellent handling --diazepam --GnRH these last two, pharmacological agents - diazepam is used if horse has had negative experience, or has stallion ring scar, or was punished before - anxiolytics often override effects of adverse experiences, esp with horses. 0.05 mg/kg - very light dose, nonsedating. in about 50% of horses will turn around in one session. 25% get worse (quieter), 25% no change. this is pretty easy. repeat 2-3 times, and if there is no positive effect, give up. GnRH - whether or not there are confirmed endocrine problems - this produces androgen release, may boost up libido a bit and get them over the edge. some stallions that are slow starters may especially benefit. usually only have to do this once or twice. could give androgens but if you give too much, you stimulate negative feedback loops. Other things to increase arousal: blinkers - for some reason, sometimes this really helps. a full blindfold also sometimes immediately turns on a stallion (ha!) voyeur experience - also we don't know how this works, but if you let a young stallion watch from a stall near the breeding shed, about 30% of the time he will suddenly improve. we don't know about observational learning in horses, but it could be stimulatory. also provokes male type aggression in stallions - he'll start lunging at other males - this naturally precedes breeding behavior in the wild. other tricks handed down from oldtime stallion handlers are out there. she wants to know if anyone knows any other tricks to turn on males?? HA. some people use prostaglandin in boars to stimulate libido. in horse, will produce erection, but not arousal. Flip side of slow starter - Rowdy stallions - misbehaving male. not in bulls, or boars. mainly just horse. stallions usually are isolated from females. they may forget all their manners when exposed to the female and just totally go for it, overwhelming the handler. once this starts happening, the handlers may injudiciously jerk stallion around, hit with baseball bats, etc. This then turns him into a slow starter. So it's better to control him correctly to start with! common problem - rearing - if not handled, you can turn the horse into a very aggressive, difficult animal, or immediately sour. whne he rears up, it's pretty much showing urgency to get somewhere. you teach him it won't help get him where he wants to go. horse on hind legs has little lateral stability. turn him away from the mare. after about 3 times he'll learn that rearing takes him away from the mare, and stop rearing. don't try to pull him down; he's stronger. to handle horses expertly like this, you need enough space. small farm operations often use confined spaces, also beginner handlers will think small space is better; but it isn't. more space is better so you can back up, direct horse, he has room to come down if he rears up and you turn him. all horses to be hand bred need to learn manners - and they can. they should be able to stand quietly when aroused - can prance and move a little, but should let you examine, wash, and dry penis and testicles. many people forget that all horses can learn this. you have to arrange it so you can approach him, grasp the penis, and move with him - whatever he does, you do not let go. after 3 or 4 tries, he'll learn that he may as well just sit there. also, all horses should tolerate handling of testicles, manipulation of genitals, and people hanging around hindquarters. it's becoming good practice to measure testicles regularly for BSE. all stallions can learn to tolerate this. if they do get ahead of you, no need to call in the lion tamers or 200 lb bouncers. you have to train the horse. the principle is, when horses establish dominance in the wild, they do it by reaching higher than the other horse. so you get a plastic bat or something, and hold it up in the air above his head. you do NOT hit him with it (although, a real rowdy stallion, you can whack the plastic bat on the ground in front of him. he'll respect it more). also, for some reason, blinkers will sometimes help you control a rowdy stallion. sometimes even a full blindfold (which always requires a trusted team and emergency plan). another thing - head control - typically a long chain on a stallion shank - a 12-16 foot shank (long enough for him to rear up without pulling it out of your hand, not too long that you trip over it). the chain part is threaded through mouth and up to the high ring on side of halter. this gives good control. sometimes horses that are very nippy - when first showing good signs of sexual behavior as youngster they may also show aggression - but to punish biting in a horse who is showing early arousal behaviors, may make him a slow starter, so may be better to use a soft muzzle. ---break--- mounting and thrusting problems of stallions - many horses with great performance careers end up with subtle HL lameness or subtle neuro deficits, and endup with poor mounting and thrusting ability. slide: good mounting stance - hind legs are squarely placed, directly behind mare, horse is tight up against her, penis well inserted. slide: hind legs too far from mare, not squared up, poor insertion, can lead to penile injury by banging into perineum, etc. when you see this, consider lower back, hock, sore feet, or neuro problems. also sore elbows poor coupling and thrusting factors: sore elbows sore feet mare (size, movement, Caslick's) poor collection technique, AV preparation, position, angle, poor footing overhandling of head and mouth when horse is mounted vigorously, and met with Caslick's - that's suturing of the vulva to prevent pneumovagina. Some farms do this to all mares and if you don't take out the suture the horse can get injured by the suture and then next time he mounts it will not be vigorous! collection technique - if you get between dummy and horse with AV it probably won't work. you do not work the AV in a stroking fashion. the horse will do this himself. also some people will reach in and stroke the penis while he is covering the mare - that is really stupid. poor footing - for indoor breeding, concrete surfaces or even gravel may be slippery for the stallion when on two feet. may not fully commit to full sweeping pelvic thrusts and couplingup. or if they do commit, may fall over backwards...so you want some good flooring, a really good surface. these are expensive, but it's more expensive if an expensive horse tips over. overhandling of head and mouth - some handlers get so into it they feel like they always have to have his head on the near side of the mare which is good for safety reasons, but some horses are just not comfortable that way and if you keep pulling the head after mounting, they just get distracted. slide: holding AV next to dummy. keep the AV positioned correctly. help horse insert then let him do the work. don't let him push the AV forward toward the shoulder of the dummy. some self serve dummies have the AV built in. that's a nice idea, but they are probably one of the greatest sources of injury. the dummy isn't soft when he misses the mark. also the penis can slip b/w the AV and the mounting of the dummy and get very stuck and cause horrible injuries. some horses have a lot of force in their thrusts - but you can keep the AV stable from the side. Ejaculatory dysfunction - ok, libido and mounting and thrusting are there, butno ejaculation. what now? Consider: musculoskeletal injury neurological problems- something wrong with neural apparatus serving ejaculation. hunter/jumper types often have subtle problems - bladder control and other problems - so horse needs extra stimulation cardiovascular problems - compromised circulation to HL, aortic iliac thrombosis in horses -occlusion at aortic bifurcation can cause erection defecits or specific ejaculation problems. Dx w/U/S. basically each thrust gets weaker and weaker. these horses needs 20-30 pelvic thrusts to ejaculate (avg is 5-7) urogenital - there are some conditions like occlusions of the urethra. horse has aspermic ejaculation, dribbling ejaculation, or he looks like he's goign to ejaculate and the he screams and flies back. can have infection, cyst, etc. psychogenic - or, idiopathic. we can't find anything physically wrong. maybe history indicates possible psychogenic origin. like, horse falling off dummy mount explosively - may be very slow to come back, may work right up to ejaculation and then get scared. handling can also cause psychogenic dysfunction - handler is too quick to try to get him to dismount. naturally, mare usually walks forward when he's done, slowly and gently. handlers usually try to rush stallion off, and if you do it like that, horse anticipates it and gives up. magic formula: with no specific dx in mind: we find best results if we go for doing everything we know to increase arousal, decrease amount of effort/work/pain, increase penile stimulation, and decrease ejaculatory threshold (with drugs) to increase arousal - best is to give continued access to female (stall next door, over the fence, whatever) slide: horse wearing a brush to control masturbation. he was a slow starter. to reduce pain and work: treat pain if you can. match the mount for size of stallion. put the mount downhill to reduce work - sometimes he hardly has to support his weight at all that way. put grasping straps on dummy or mare - leather straps stallion can bite onto to hold himself up (naturally, he would be biting mare but she'd move away if he bites too hard), provide lateral support - stand on either side and gently support him. make sure there is excellent footing. also horses can ejaculate standing on the ground, so you can put AV on with him standing there, do manual stimulation that way. If you aren't sure of source of pain, try bute 1 gram BID for a minimum of 10 days, sometimes for the whole breeding season. if horse tolerates it well, that's very useful. but often it takes 10 days to see improvement. extra stimulation to penis - maximize stimulation - hotter is better (to a point), fuller is better. hot compresses at base of penis. Missouri AV is probably best. the Colorado has poor base pressure. when they're breeding a mare, each time he thrusts, the vulva clamps onto the penis. you can simulate that manually with hot compresses. xylazine/rompun induced ejaculation: alpha adrenergics, you have to play with the dose - 0.3 mg/lb IV; standing quietly in stall, collection bag on girth. sometimes useful; about 50% of horses maybe. sometimes prostaglandin, too. or imipramine. you can also use these drugs, at lower doses, during breeding, to reduce the ejaculatory threshold. slide: pony with bag on, he was given imipramine (tricyclic antidepressant) - induces masturbation and ejaculation. each drug has different effects - xylazine produces more of a physiologic ejaculate, imipramine has more sperm, less liquid; prostaglandin has more gel fraction, less sperm. usually pg is last resort. Other common misbehaviors that reduce fertility: slide: frenzied stallion syndrome- these horses are out of control. they charge the door for no reason, maybe they charge at you. RElated syndrome - savage stallion syndrome - a stallion who infrequently and unreliably attacks you, picks you up by shoulder or belt and throws you. very bad. but frenzied stallion syndrome is a bit different. this horse got this way b/c owner teased him with water pistol. FSS: varies with breeding season - usually worse during it, esp if horse isn't bred regularly. but some horses get worse when breeding season stops and they have no more mares presented to them. may include stereotypies like weaving, pacing. people use toys, distractions, and companions to help with it. this horse in the slide needed a handler to train him. self mutilation - stallions may bite themselves - like tailchasing dogs, or lick granulomas in dogs. self-directed intermale aggression is what it looks like. they bite chest, flank. sniff first, then they bite, kick out, and scream - just as they would to another stallion. weird. can lead to febrile episodes too. Spontaneous erection and masturbation are normal and probably required behaviors. people think it is abnormal and they try to stop it. Slide: stallion who breeds once an hour; he still masturbates. this kind of proves the point. free running animals with free access to breeding still do it. slide: the erection is very rigid, looks pretty normal. even full belling of glans. ejaculation is rare. 16/30,000 observed episodes. farmers worry that it is limiting his fertility; but it isn't. we've seen it in all equids. happens about every 90 minutes in undisturbed animals, from birth to old age. about 50% frequency and intensity in geldings. we've even seen this in foals, in utero!! also seen in humans up to about age 3; after that principally during sleep REM episodes. the foals don't have full erections, but they show the jerky movements. all equid species show this behavior. there is no meaningful association with libido, fertility, access to breeding, level of confinement, sociosexual environment, bachelor or harem status, age, or species! it isn't due to boredom. wild zebras do this about every 90 min also! the masturbatory behavior is very resistant to modification, but everyone wants to make it stop. there are a lot of antimasturbatory devices available - anything from hot and cold water to electrical stimulation to spiked leather, brushes, all kinds of things. these days, people use stallion rings and stallion cages. the ring is a constricting band that inflicts pain and sometimes stops tumescence. it does not work, it injures the penis. can cause paraphemosis. the stallion cage is put over the glans and attached to the prepuce, so colt can lower penis just enough to urinate. causes pressure cuts. studies were done in ponies to see effects of the brush - it didn't work. trying to stop it with electronic device called "vice breaker" - what happened was the behavior increased! Female behavior (on NEXT exam, not this exam) Maternal behavior: in mammals, maternal behavior involves several steps: 1. preparation for birth (sows build nest) - in equids, she picks quiet birth site about 24 hrs before foaling 2. neonatal grooming and marking - equids use nuzzling, sniffling, and licking 3. selective bonding - equids use vocalization, sniffling, and flehmen. this is the only time females show the flehmen respose naturally (mares will do it in response to fly spray or other weird things, though) 4. suckling - equids will allow and facilitate nursing, helps foal nurse 5. protection - equids show aggression towards intruders slide: mini horse and foal. nose to nose nuzzling occuring. nose to butt nuzzling mom-->foal. most spp also pay attention to fetal membranes - horse will nuzzle, exhibit flehmen. cow will eat it. within 24 hrs, mother is bonded to the foal, not only to a foal but selectively to her own. initially, she bonds to any foal, but by 24 hrs it is selectively to her own foal. so you can group them together and foals know who mom is, and mom knows who foal is and will rebuf other foals. so if you have to cross foster, and you don't have a special nurse mare around, you have to do it early. maternal behavior problems in mares: specific problems (often called "foal rejection) -simple ambivalence - mare not responding to foal (not actively rejecting) -extreme overprotection - can hurt foal. one pony mare bit the clinician who went to look at the foal, and so they separated her from the foal. but more important, she can run over the foal trying to chase out an intruder. -fear of foal - young or first time moms may try to get away from foal -nursing specific avoidance - usually some good reason for this like sore or very sensitive udder -savage attack - true foal rejection - like savage stallion syndrome. often start as good mother, then unpredictably attacks foal - picks up, shakes, usually injures foal -foal stealing - stealing young more common in cattle,sheep, crowded situations. less common in horses. True rejection really includes only fear of foal, savage attack, and nursing avoidance. slide: mom who had difficult birth, long parturition, foal came out fine - mom totally beat - nonresponsive to foal. foal is nuzzling her, but she's ignoring him. try to make her feel better as fast as possible so she can respond. we see a lot of this in c-section and dystocia mares. mares are sick, or foals are sick - if foal doesn't respond, there is also poor bonding. for ambivalence: support mare and foal, keep them together,keep foal fed with mother's milk. oxytocin? in sheep, this will "turn on" maternal behavior. even in a ewe who hasn't recently given birth. debatable if there is an effect in the horse. it is the "hormone of bonding" in humans and other spp,and probably is ok to give it. Over protectiveness: avoid provoking aggression and provide large area for mom and foal! some people try to put them in small spaces to prevent her from running over foal, but it's better to turn them out in pasture so she can run around and get between intruder and foal. mom always wants to be between foal and anything else. Fear of foal: behavior modification - get mare to overcome her fear within 24 hrs. at least, partially! as long as she isn't attacking or running away from foal every time it tries to nurse, foal should be ok. nursing specific avoidance - do whatever you can to relieve udder pain. also try to keep foal nursing on mare as opposed to milking her and feeding foal. much better for foal. things to try - prepartum, manipulate the udder, milk the mare. also try physical restraint/supervision of nursing - works with some well trained mares. tranquilization regimens are avoided as long as possible b/c you do not want to tranquilize the foal. but sometimes we try detomidine and butorphanol, or ace, or diazepam. can try a nursing chute for restraint of mare. foals also learn to avoid mare kicks. savage attack =- if you actually have witnessed a mare picking up foal by scruff, that is a sad story b/c it is going to happen again and she'll kill it. so separate them and find a nurse mare or something. if you can't, try cross fostering, use mare who recently lost foal -- in England there is a network for this. other tricks - take placenta or vaginal waash from mare who lost foal, spread onto orphan foal. slide: lamb blanket - if you have a mare with older foal, put blanket on that foal, for a few hours, then put it on the orphan foal. newest thing - foal kindergarten. if you bottle feed foal, it isn't normal. so you put it into foal kindergarten - orphan foals are kept together, milk put into big tubs and they drink out of it. minimal human contact. otherwise they bond too much to people. also older foals in foal kindergarten take over parenting behavior. ------end-------