Giving IM Injections

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LoveMoo11

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When I was taught how to do injections, for intramuscular ones I was told to pull back on the plunger slightly once the needle was inserted to check for blood to make sure I wasn't in a vein (this is in the neck, following BQA). However, at work my boss just tells me to stick it and do it. I assume the risk of damaging or killing the animal changes depending on what you are injecting. What's your opinion? Just doing it is easiest of course, but is that putting the animal in any real danger?
 
I always try to check for a vein first as well before injecting no matter where the injection is done. Why risk it ? With doing squirming calves by yourself it is a little more tricky though, you want to get in and out asap and I have sometimes just stuck them and injected, not the right thing to due though and I hope to be more careful.
 
I always draw back, I'm paranoid and can't afford avoidable losses. Hard to do with automatic syringes, tho. Part of the reason I don't use 'em anymore, the other reason is disease transmission (and that's why I switch palpating sleeves between cows, too). Again, paranoid. My cows appreciate the smaller guage needle I can use with single shot syringes.
 
I stick the calf and depress the plunger in one movement... oftentimes I find if I take the time to pull back to check for blood, I run the risk of injury (to me!) or the needle coming out, or detaching from the syringe, etc. Haven't ever had a problem -- I do carry epinephrine though. *knock on wood* But then, frequently when I'm giving something to the animal it's not in a chute, so I have a time limit. I try to go SQ with most injectable liquids though, I prefer not to do IM if it's not necessary. Almost everything either can go SQ or is labeled for only SQ.
 
I try my best to pull back, check and then depress. I must confess that in tricky times I have been known to take the chance. It is a risk for sure! I have a friend who has worked for a vet almost 27yrs.she had a patient who gave meds at home to a horse, didn't draw back , gave the shot and the horse dropped dead at the owners feet! I think of that EVERYTIME I give a shot of any kind.
 
Stick and push. Never worried about veins, or heard of anyone that does. Day is too short and too many cattle to process (among other things) to worry about it. If it ever became a big problem, I know I would go back to putting everything in the hip, and so would many others. :cowboy:
 
Aaron":1zy00kwq said:
Stick and push. Never worried about veins, or heard of anyone that does. Day is too short and too many cattle to process (among other things) to worry about it. If it ever became a big problem, I know I would go back to putting everything in the hip, and so would many others. :cowboy:
same here
 
I don't know ALL meds - but I always thought you only had to worry about OIL BASE products.
We always give A&D shots to newborns - which is oil base. We always drew back to check for blood, which is somewhat tricky as most of you know. We had a calf that went down within minutes of his injections - took a day, but he died. We are absolutely sure it was the injection. Later, I found out that the new A&D shots can be give SQ - so that's the route we take now. Goes to show you, you should read labels no matter how familiar you are with the product. Could have saved a calf! That was about the only product we used that "had" to be give IM. Still a few meds around IM but most are SQ.

Has anyone used the newer "Bottle-Mount Vaccinator"? We have one by Allflex and one by Prima Tech. Really like the Prima Tech one.
 
I would go back to putting everything in the hip, and so would many others. :cowboy:

or you could think of it as just putting everything into the roast. because even with some of the higher grading slaughter cows, many of the loins, rounds and top butts are pulled and used in some of the lower-end restaurant and food-service trade. processors that do that are able to give a little bit more for a slaughter cow carcass, translating to a little bit more money given for slaughter cows. those processors really don't want to have to trim out our injection site lesions. nor should they have to.

and even more important, consumers don't want to eat our injection site lesions. nor should they have to. as thinly as some of these cow roasts are sliced to make them tender, one shot of la200 into a top butt could make a really yummy, gooey green mess for 3 or 4 different arby's diners to enjoy. yum yum. that would probably inspire them to ask for a chicken sandwich next time, don't ya think?
 
1995: George M H; Heinrich P E; Dexter D R; Morgan J B; Odde K G; Glock R D; Tatum J D; Cowman G L; Smith G C
Injection-site lesions in carcasses of cattle receiving injections at branding and at weaning.
Journal of animal science 1995;73(11):3235-40.
Crossbred steer and heifer calves (n = 84) were given injections at branding and at weaning (using a completely randomized block design); 225 to 376 d later, pairs of two subprimal cuts from each animal were evaluated for incidence and severity of injection-site lesions. The four products compared were 1) a 2-mL clostridial, 2) a 5-mL clostridial, 3) vitamin AD3, and 4) a long-acting oxytetracycline antibiotic (OTC). Branding-age calves (mean 48.3 d of age) received intramuscular injections of two of the four products, in the semimembranosus (inside round) muscles (one in the left muscle and one in the right); at weaning age (mean 199.3 d of age), calves received injections of the remaining two products in the gluteus medius (top sirloin butt) muscles (one in the left and the other in the right). Injections at branding of 2 mL of clostridial, 5 mL of clostridial, vitamin AD3, and OTC caused injection-site lesions in 72.5, 92.7, 5.3, and 51.2%, respectively, of inside rounds from slaughter cattle. Incidence of injection-site lesions was lowest (P < .05) among inside rounds and top sirloin butts from animals given vitamin AD3 (as calves, and at both branding and weaning times) and was highest (P < .05) in inside rounds from cattle given, as calves, injections of 5 mL of clostridial at branding or of OTC at weaning. Less trimming was required to remove the lesions resulting from injections of all four products when they were given at weaning time. Before completion of the present study, it was thought that injection-site lesions were from damage that subsisted only briefly following an inoculation;
these results make it abundantly clear that intramuscular administration of clostridials and certain antibiotics will cause damage so severe that it will be evident in beef muscle 7.5 to 12 mo later.
 
When I give injections I pinch a couple inches of skin with my left hand and inject under the pinch. With a big dose I might do 2 sites. Always on the neck.
Why doesn't everybody do this? It's fast and easy.
 
Mnm I think you are tenting to give a sub c shot ?? (right?). Some meds/vaccines cannot be given sub c. I do not tent anymore either after reading the way Bez and Msscamp do it and watching my vet countless times. I am however not as coordinated as he is though.. :lol2:

I give AD orally . My newborns do not get a needle for anything anymore ,everything is done orally.
 
hillsdown":pctihjrm said:
Mnm I think you are tenting to give a sub c shot ?? (right?). Some meds/vaccines cannot be given sub c. I do not tent anymore either after reading the way Bez and Msscamp do it and watching my vet countless times. I am however not as coordinated as he is though.. :lol2:

I give AD orally . My newborns do not get a needle for anything anymore ,everything is done orally.


HD how do they do it? I must have missed that thread.
 
CPL":17czeajc said:
hillsdown":17czeajc said:
Mnm I think you are tenting to give a sub c shot ?? (right?). Some meds/vaccines cannot be given sub c. I do not tent anymore either after reading the way Bez and Msscamp do it and watching my vet countless times. I am however not as coordinated as he is though.. :lol2:

I give AD orally . My newborns do not get a needle for anything anymore ,everything is done orally.


HD how do they do it? I must have missed that thread.

Bez+":17czeajc said:
I use the following method.

I do a lot of sub Q and this is how I do it - I NEVER tent with the second hand. All sub Q shots are administered one handed. I discarded the tenting method years ago. Dangerous and slow - in my opinion.

1. Hold the syringe in your fist like you would hold a knife and are about to stab with it.

2. Place your thumb over the plunger

3. Hold the syringe parallel to the location of the injection site on the neck - needle pointing down.

4. Using a very slight angle - bring the top of the syringe back just slightly towards you and quickly insert the needle into the injection site in one smooth downward motion.

5. The needle will enter the animal and slide under the skin and still not hit the meat. I never use a needle longer than 3/4 of an inch - never had reason to.

6. Push the plunger with your thumb and then remove the needle.

If you are nervous - and some people are - slap (not punch) the site several times hard and fast with your free hand and then insert the needle and inject. The stinging sensation from the slap deadens the feel of the injection. This also helps with jumpy cattle. I usually do it with the back of my left hand and then hit them with the needle in my right hand.

You have just completed a successful one handed sub Q injection. Never put more than 10 CC per site.

I hear all sorts of comments about lumps after injections. I can honestly state I have never experienced this.

Is it because of my injection method? I do not know - but the guy who showed me swears it is.

I can bang off a lot of injections - real fast using this method - put one animal in the squeeze and pack a bunch in tight in the chute behind the squeeze and off I go. I can hit them all faster than you can supply me with the needles and the cows seldom jump around because they do not feel the needle going in.

Cheers

Bez+
 

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