Tool

What timing a cycle costs — and what the litter is worth

A clinic bills for the test; you sell the litter. So the money question has two halves — what following a cycle costs, and what the litter it protects is worth. Both are below. The one thing this tool will not do is guess how much tighter timing improves your odds: that number is yours to set, and it is kept separate from the arithmetic.

Bitches you time per year Count every cycle you follow, not every dog you own Draws per cycle Serial testing means every 1–2 days once she starts to rise Your vet, per visit The whole visit — test, draw, and any office or handling fee In-house, per test A 10-test kit at $90 works out to $9 Round trip to the vet Door to door, in minutes Analyzer

One vet visit buys you

8 in-house tests

Testing every other day is a $450 decision at the vet, or $54 at home

Per cycle
Sending out	$450
At home	$54
Per year	3 cycles
Sending out	$1,350
At home, consumables	$162
Hours in the car	18 hrs
The analyzer pays for itself in	3 cycles

What the cycle is protecting

Puppies you sell per litter Live, sold puppies — not the whelped count Price per puppy Your average, after any deposit refunds

Following the cycle properly costs

0.5% of one litter

A litter is worth $12,000; testing it at home costs $54

Per cycle
One litter, at your prices	$12,000
Testing it at home	$54
Testing it by sending out	$450

Your assumption, not our claim

Owning an analyzer prevents a lost litter once every

We do not publish a figure here, because there is no study that supports one. Set your own and the arithmetic follows.

Read this before you trust the number

The saving is not the point; the resolution is. At send-out prices most breeders ration draws to three or four and guess at the days in between. The reason to own an analyzer is that testing every other day stops being a financial decision.
More tests do not guarantee a litter. They narrow the window you are aiming at. Timing is one input among semen quality, handling, and the bitch herself.
The prevented-litter figure is yours, not ours. No published study says how often an analyzer saves a litter, so the calculator ships with that field empty. Treat whatever you put in it as your own estimate, and notice that the first half of this page needs no such estimate at all.
Not everything is in this table. Needles, tubes and a centrifuge are a one-off outlay. Your own time drawing and spinning a sample is real, it is just smaller than the drive.

This compares cost, never results. Numbers from different analyzers are not interchangeable and the thresholds you read on one do not carry to another — see why thresholds are analyzer-specific before acting on any value.

For planning only, and not veterinary advice. Breeding decisions belong with your veterinarian.