Vaccination Injection Question

[jpj]

Hello, I just finished giving the second series of vaccination shots to two calfs. Question I have is that with one of them when I tried to inject the syringe it was very hard to push it down. I tried three times in different spots on the neck including the other side, and all times the same thing. Just wanted to know what I was doing wrong. The first calf went real easy, the vaccine injected with minimal pressure on the syringe. The second one we treated in the past with antibiotics that now he sees me coming and tightened his neck muscles up. Just curious if this could be the cause of not be able to push the syringe in easy. I was using a 1" by 18 ga. needle. Also was wondering if a 16 ga. needle may have worked better.

Thanks
:?:

 

[tapeworm]

Yep. 16 is much better. Especially for cold vaccine or blackleg......or if you did one first and the needle had a little chunk of muscle or blood in it. Dont take much to screw up an 18....even a slight bend or bur. Sometimes you have trouble working auto syringes with 18s. switch to 16s and problem disappears

 

[milkmaid]

Sometimes syringes will get "sticky" if you continue to reuse them over and over. Were you using the same syringe for both calves, or two different syringes, and were they new, or had they been used before?

 

[brokenmouth]

he sees me coming and tightened his neck muscles up

agree, you might have bent the very tip of the needle over a little. it almost sounds like your injecting into the muscle. if your vacinating for blackleg or doing a 7way you need to go under the skin, not into the muscle.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

A 16 guage would be better. The difficulty could have been the size of the needle, quite possibly the "tense" muscle (have had this happen with horses) or both or as stated above by a burr on the needle tip. Be sure the syringe is "clean". New ones slide/plunge better.

 

[jpj]

Thanks for the responses. The needle and syringe were both new. After the third try I tried pushing the plunger with the needle not in the animal and it squirted with little effort. It was a triangle 9-way and I was going IM (in the neck) per the bottle's label. It was about 25 to 30 degrees out. Didn't seem like the vaccine was thickening because of the temp, but maybe. Just trying to figure out why the vaccine was hard to push out when I did one calf five minutes before with no trouble. Only thing different was the second animal was real tense. Do 16 ga. needles go in OK without leaving a big hole. I am just learning and the 16 ga. just looked so much bigger than the 18 ga.

Thanks Again

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Do 16 ga. needles go in OK without leaving a big hole. I am just learning and the 16 ga. just looked so much bigger than the 18 ga.

In my personal experience a 16 will go in just fine without leaving a big hole. Occasionally there may be a residual drop of blood, but no big hole, or bleeding. And yes, the 18 is smaller than the 16 but sometimes the 16 is the better choice.

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

16 Gauge is better,use a new needle/syringe with each shot.you were probably going into the muscle instead of under the skin. :cboy: ;-)

 

[jerry27150]

have that problem sometimes myself. some calves just have tougher & thicker skin than others. also the needle might not have been clear through the skin if you go at an angle.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

By all rights, an 18 ga needle should be perfect for normal vaccines. The only time we ever use a 16 ga needle is with oil base products, because they are thicker. If the vaccine said to use IM, than you were doing it properly into the muscle in the neck. Under the skin is SubQ shot not IM. BQA program recommends using the smallest ga needle possible. We use 1 inch length for IM & 3/4" length for SubQ injections.
Like posted above, some cattle have much thicker/tougher hides, but once you are into the muscle, it should have been normal. Since you tried it outside the animal, I can't explain the difference. That is strange.

 

[D.R. Cattle]

I use 18GA for vaccinations- they usually require a very small amount. For something like LA200 when you could inject 50CC I go with the 16 GA. I can usually slide the 18 in with no resistance but the 16 gives a good sting to cattle and they resist.

 

[Victoria]

The first calf was probably not as tense as the second. When they tense those muscles it can be hard to get the vaccine into them.