Biopryn - Your thoughts

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shadyhollownj":2n6ipju7 said:
Well the place in Pennsylvania we use gave us padded envelopes when we started. All im saying is we have done it that way for 4 years and the results come back the same. I just feel more comfortable with padding. Maybe thats just the office you use. they are all individually owned.

I appreciate all the info.

I agree...depending on the website you go to, there can be some variations in shipping procedures, etc. That is what prompted me to ask the question on what others, who have actually gone through the process, are doing.

I will be shipping around 25 specimens this time, so I plan to band groups of 10 and 5 tubes together, put in a baggies, and then ship in a padded box. Hopefully that should be sufficient.
 
I band in groups of 5 - 10, and then wrap in a paper towel and put up to 10 tubes in sandwich baggie. I put all baggies in one large freezer baggie. It's probably overkill, but a baggie's just a few pennies. I print a copy of the submission form and put it in the large baggie. I do use an ice pack but it's not required. I save the ice packs that come with vaccines so I'm glad to move them on out of the freezer. The submission form doesn't get damp because it's inside the large baggie. I either find a box or let UPS box it. We ship to Bedford IN, and they told me about the rare ocassion when samples are damaged, so I go for overkill on packaging. If I spend an extra $5 to cushion the samples that beats pulling samples all over again.
The last time I shipped I sent 40 samples and I labelled each baggie with the sample numbers contained.


Shadyhollow, I've never felt a pulse in the tail where I pull blood. Also, when you use a syringe to pull blood, do you clean it between each cow? If you don't you could be cross-contaminating the blood samples and you won't get accurate results.
 
I never reuse needles. I dont know where that came from. I thought that would be common sense. That would defeat the purpose of individual testing. Sorry about the pulse comment thats not what I meant. The wife usually draws all the blood. More of a spot between sections of tail bone or vertebrae. Well you guys obviously are shipping more than me. I am only shipping 5-10 at a time so the small padded works fine.
 
shadyhollownj":1af489zx said:
I never reuse needles. I dont know where that came from. I thought that would be common sense. That would defeat the purpose of individual testing. Sorry about the pulse comment thats not what I meant. The wife usually draws all the blood. More of a spot between sections of tail bone or vertebrae. Well you guys obviously are shipping more than me. I am only shipping 5-10 at a time so the small padded works fine.

I asked if you cleaned the syringe between each draw, otherwise you'll be getting cross contamination between cow samples.
 
Yeah chris I always use the same syringe and needle. I though using some spit and my jeans to clean it was good enough. I use a NEW syringe AND needle every time. We buy the needles and syringes as one unit so I consider them one in the same. Its just the way we do it. The wife is an ER nurse and she just feels its easier to pull back and draw the blood if you have a difficult cow. So the common sense moral of the story is use a new needle and syringe and get no cross contamination.
 
shadyhollownj":1hxmrlvg said:
Yeah chris I always use the same syringe and needle. I though using some spit and my jeans to clean it was good enough. I use a NEW syringe AND needle every time. We buy the needles and syringes as one unit so I consider them one in the same. Its just the way we do it. The wife is an ER nurse and she just feels its easier to pull back and draw the blood if you have a difficult cow. So the common sense moral of the story is use a new needle and syringe and get no cross contamination.

Sarcasm wasn't necessary.

I lose about 5% of the vacuum tubes due to dancing cows making me lose the vacuum if the needle slips out from under the skin. I thought you might have found a cost effective way to counter that loss, but I think buying a disposable needle & syringe unit in addition to the vacuum tubes is not more cost effective.
I'm not a nurse, but I guess I'll still keep on using the needles designed to be used with the vacuum tubes.
 
Sorry guess I took it the wrong way. We buy them boxed and they are only like 24 bucks for a hundred I think. So its only like a quarter a piece but I'm only doing like 25 cows. You can also buy the tubes on amazon by the hundred too.
 
I use a new syringe and needle every time i buy them seperate in boxes of 100 the 2 combined are$10.60 the blood collecting needles are $19.95 per 100 so its cheaper for me to use a new one each time and i save a few vacutainers in the process. The syringe seems alot easier to me and i make sure its luer lock with a 18x1 neddle.
 
bse":19mtedy2 said:
I use a new syringe and needle every time i buy them seperate in boxes of 100 the 2 combined are$10.60 the blood collecting needles are $19.95 per 100 so its cheaper for me to use a new one each time and i save a few vacutainers in the process. The syringe seems alot easier to me and i make sure its luer lock with a 18x1 neddle.

I had to look up the prices where I get my stuff. I pay $14/hundred for the blood collecting needles and the single use syringe w/needle are $26/hundred. I'm surprised how much difference there is in price.
 
thats a difference in both directions i guess the morral of this story is which ever method you use shop around for the best prices.
 
Years ago, I was drawing blood to test for heat cycles. I used the same needle and syringe, and I kept getting the same results. hmmmm NEVER USE A USED NEEDLE OR SYRINGE.

I love Biopryn. Once you learn how to get the blood, you get results back quick, and we had our cows tested to see which were and which were not pregnant, then they were vet checked. Biopryn was 100%. Not saying they will be always, but they were with us.

We had two opens this year. The feedlot didn't call (asked if they would if the vet found them bred), and so I'm guessing that they were right again.

Love the program. Saved me hundreds already by selling opens. I will continue to use it too.
 
I love Biopryn too, but had an interesting experience with it this year. Tested a group of cows 30 days after AI. Retested a few times after that to make sure everyone stayed bred and that those who were open got bred to clean up. Anyhow, one of the cows that tested open for AI and bred later calved exactly on the AI due date. She had a bull calf that weighed over 100 lbs. so I really don't think he was premature. Anyhow, I think the results for opens are supposed to be almost 100% accurate. She must have slipped through on a very minute margin of error. It certainly wouldn't keep me from using it again in the future. I do like to retest a couple of times though. A cow that tests bred at 30 days can slip a calf and fall behind the herd without notice if you don't see that she comes back into heat and gets bred again later.
 
How many days after breeding do you have to wait to test?

Thanks
 
I ship with USPS, if it fits it ships box. I havent mentioned what was in it and they never asked. I don't put the sample in the fridge or use ice packs, I usually leave them on my desk until I can get to the post office.

Never wasted a vacuum tube, I wait till I get a drop or two out of the needle before I insert the tube. If I lose vacuum, i'll pull the needle and re-stick until I get good flow and re-insert the tube or take the cap off and drip it in the tube. You don't really need a lot of blood in the tube, a half inch or so is usually more than enough.
 
I've laid off of responding to this one for some time. It's technology, and one that can be helpful.
But...let me offer another perspective for you to consider...

While some veterinarians may or may not be great at pregnancy diagnosis by palpation, and others may be too busy for you to get them out to preg-check one cow here and there, a good veterinarian can offer you a whole lot more than "She's open, she's bred."
They may be able to pick up on, and point out to you potential problems that you may not have noticed - or, in some cases, may not want to notice - bad udder/teat anatomy, early cancer eye, cows with lymphosarcoma or reproductive tract abnormalities, cows with no teeth in poor body condition that may not make it through the winter, issues with feed/mineral program, etc.

What if you get your results back from BioPryn, and you've got 40%(or more) opens? BioPryn can't tell you anything but pregnant/not pregnant - and if you call your veterinarian and say, "Doc, I bled my cows and sent the blood off for that BioPryn test, and 40% of 'em are not bred. Whaddya reckon is the problem?"
Well, he/she likely won't have a clue - but, if they'd 'been on your place', they might be able to point out that bull with the hard, atrophic testicles, or know that you were trying to get cows bred during a 100+ degree heat wave, or that your 1st calf heifers are BCS 2-3 at the beginning of the breeding season; that sort of thing.
Yeah, it may be less expensive, up front, for you to learn to draw blood samples and send 'em to the laboratory that runs the pregnancy test, but in some cases it may not be advantageous in the long run.

I believe AlaCowman stated it in another discussion thread, and there's a lot of truth to it...Cattlemen will starve a good veterinarian out of business - and then complain about not having one available when they 'need' one. I'd recommend that you need to let your good veterinarian have some of the 'gravy' work if you want them to be around to help you out of a trainwreck.

I'll be willing to bet that the BioPryn folks won't come out at midnight to deliver that problem calf from that heifer, replace that uterine prolapse - or provide any meaningful insight into why your cows aren't pregnant.

I'm no longer in active practice; BioPryn doesn't impact my personal bottom line, but I know the value that a good veterinarian can bring to the table, and some folks are missing opportunities for enhanced productivity and profit by looking strictly at the cost of pregnancy diagnosis.
 
The Biopryn lab I use is also my new vet,
And I buy my AI meds thru them to at least give them some business.
 

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