Need Quick Help - Drawing Blood Today

[Lizza]

Hello All,

We are drawing blood today for our CAE/CL testing. We are sending our samples tomorrow to PAVL. After we collect this morning do we refrigerate overnight until I ship? I have all their packing specs. Also I can't find a payment form, do they bill me?

Thank you VERY much. Wish us luck!!!!

[deafgoatlady]

Hey.. Wrap the paper towel over the tube and tape it too and put it in the refrigerate tonite and ship it off tomorrow.. And um.. The form is in the website.. I get the forms from their website. Good luck!!

[mygoat]

Actually there's an ORDER form on their website. Make sure to fill that out.

Don't forget to label the tubes!

They'll send a bill along with the hard copy of results.

[Lizza]

Oh, I found the order form, I just can't find the "payment form" or anywhere where it asks for a total due?

I have the tubes all labeled and the order form filled out. I'm using the red capped vacuumn tubes with the double needles. I actually took a class on goat blood draws. I'm going to shave first, then draw. I have 11 goats and 1 sheep to do this morning. Once I catch the sheep I need to worm him and give him is CD&T shot. Everyone else is completely caught up on vacc's because they are so friendly, the sheep I only get to touch a few times a year! He's a bit wild.

Thanks for the help! I will do all the wrapping then with papertowels, ziplocs, and taping right after we draw, keep it in the frig overnight and put it in tomorrow with a freezer pack Priority USPS.

My one last question is the label I printed off on their website, it has the Biohazard label on the outside of the package and I noticed another lab (WSU in Pullman, WA) said to NOT put the Biohazard label on the outside. Just curious on that one.

THANKS AGAIN!!! I've got dinner on for tonight and I'm heading out to the herd.

[mygoat]

Don't put the biohazard label on it. Some places will NOT ship it air - though it IS OK to ship air... If they refuse to send it air, ask them to check the list again and make sure to designate they are ANIMAL blood samples.

There is no payment form, they bill you after testing.

The double sided needles are a pain, IMO. It gets drips of blood everywhere and it's difficult to hold a goat still, have blood dripping everywhere, and pop on the vacuum tube. I just used a 3 cc syringe (Pavl only needs 1cc) with a 20ga x 1" needle, withdraw as much as I could get, and then poke the needle through the red stopper-tops.

[Lizza]

Maybe I should switch to a syringe, I failed this morning. We are going to try again tonight with the milk stand. So much for my class! I didn't do a few things right though and my holders had a hard time keeping the goats still for me, this is the first time I've tried it myself. I have syringes, so maybe I should give that a try tonight first before I go back to the double sided needles. Thanks mygoat .

[Anderson farms]

use the syringes. Trust me way easier and shave the neck makes it eaiser to see the vain. I just did it last weekend for the first time also.

[Lizza]

double post

[Lizza]

I did it!!! Yeah! The stand made all the difference, I was just too skitish without those goats really still. I ended up using the double needles and managed to get it down pretty quick one handed off/on. We got in a groove. The tubes are all wrapped and packaged in the frig and I have my freezer pack ready to go in the morning. Now we just need to wait for those clean tests!

[Goat Servant]

Best of good fortune to you Morningstar, Im sure they will be neg, but it sure is a good feeling to see it official! We just had our first CAE & CL done here last month...vet said lots of people call asking if so & so has their herd tested.
We just brought them out to the outside fence and braced , I held she stuck, only had one balk a little. Next time I will ask her to teach me how its done.

[Lizza]

Thanks goatservant! This is our second round of testing, the vet did it for us last time. We had one bred boer doe that we had just bought turn up faintly positive and we promptly got rid of her. Everyone else has tested negative but I sure do feel much much better when I see it all in black and white!

I feel like next time I could have done it without the stand, now that I feel comfortably, but I probably will still use it just because it was so easy with it.

[mygoat]

I don't like using a stand - the headstock gets in the way.

I prefer backing the goat into a corner and getting a big tall strong man to hold the goat. He then grabs the head/chin and pulls the goat's head upward into his chest, using hands to restrain the head and knees to keep the goat from moving forward. Nothing gets in the way, the goat is restrained, and at a perfect height if you kneel down.

When the goat's looking upward you'd really be surprised how much easier it is to find that vein and pinch it off.

Those stands with the head-holder thing used to prepare boers for show would also work great, IMO. They hold the head steady and upright.

[Lizza]

Thanks mygoat, I feel like I could be so much faster now that I can do it without a stand. When I tried it in the morning I messed around for way too long and everyone got sick of trying to hold the goat still for all my fussing. In the evening when I stuck one in the stand I was able to really feel around and mess with her until I felt really comfortable. I will probably try it without a stand next time if only to be faster without hauling out the stand. The headstock really didn't get in my way, I did it all on my knees and the neck was exposed right in front of me. My husband held the head up and my oldest daughter held her forward from behind. With the goats so still it really gave me confidence. I didn't miss once after I figured it all out. I even managed the sheep quickly. Very proud of myself, I was pretty bummed after my morning failure.