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Eastern NE KS | There was a hint of this in the last syringe discussion. I suspect Russ would be correcting me (or worse) if I tried to help him work cattle.
Discussions about syringes got me thinking about needles and vax techniques. I hope to trigger a discussion about your process and why you like it.
My vax plan uses vaccines that call for SC, subcutaneous injection. I use 3/4" x 18 gage disposable needles. I store my syringes in a cool box made out of the valley vet insulated shipping box. The 20cc glass vial heated on the stove melts the Styrofoam nicely and the hole is just right for my syringe.
I use the now discouraged 'skin tent' technique and know I risk a needle poke or worse. I tried a 5/8" needle and no tent. Found myself wondering if the product was going deeper than SC. So back to my old ways.
Other notes:
Scour Bos 9 and 4 vaccines are so thick that I use a 14 gage needle for delivery.
The neck extender on my chute can make a cows skin as taunt as a drum skin. I learned a better chute technique that minimizes this but it still happens occasionally. This makes tenting impossible so I'm angling for a no tent SC shot OR resetting the head catch and neck extender.
One neighbor has me run the syringes at his place. I copy his technique which is skin tent and 1"x16 gage. If the needle pokes thru, a second dose is applied. A second neighbor has me pushing cattle to the chute and he runs the treatments. Some of his vaccines allow both IM and SC placement. | |
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Needles and vax technique
