[RunAround]

I read on this website that you can send in blood to be tested. Of course they recommend that you use a vet. But it costs soooo much $$$ here that testing is out of the question for me unless I can find a cheaper way. Here is the site: http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/depts_waddl/caefaq.aspx

If you have done this how did you ship the blood to them? This was the part I was a little confused on. :shrug:

 

[Muddy Creek Farm]

I would also like to know about that... I am really excited about saving money and drawing the blood myself. :leap:

 

[sparks879]

I fed ex overnight my blood. A cellular phone box works great. Blood can stay one night not being cold. I draw blood myself, put it in the fridge and ship it the next day. try to meet the fed ex man at the post office. i get a general idea of when they do pick up. Just dont tell fed ex its blood your shipping. i wrap the blood tubes individually in paper towels. and make sure to pack them so they don't move, i put all the paperwork in a ziplock bag in case something breaks. label all the tubes with the goats name and a number (i usually use the order that a draw blood in) write down on a piece of paper for your home records the name corrosponding with the number as you go. or if they are tagged use that number. Just something for your records.
hope this helps
beth

 

[Muddy Creek Farm]

Also on that site it talked about a two dollar lab fee (if they send it to another lab) do they usually do that?

 

[sparks879]

i have nevr done that before, hadn;t read it either, it might be new. I have always just paid the ten dollar assetion fee or whatever they call it. Basically an open the box fee.
beth

 

[Duchesse]

This lab is half my battle :leap: , at least the prices are reasonable.

Now I have to find out where I can have the blood drawn. :sigh:


:idea: Maybe the vet will draw the blood and then I'll send it in for analysis.


I could learn to draw it myself. :shocked:


How did all of you who draw their own blood learn to do it :shrug:

 

[sparks879]

I have a wonderful friend here that i trade services with. Its so great. Im still learning to draw blood. Not cofortable to go completly on my own yet. But vicky has a hard time doing hooves and disbudding. So we trade stuff like that all the time. She comes over and helps me draw blood and i go over and do her goats hooves. We also attend eachothers kiddings, which is great for an extra pair of hands to dry babies and such. The vet is way too expenive for me. He charges a sixty dollar farm call plus a fifteen dollar exam fee per goat and eleven dollars per goat to draw blood. Plus all the lab and shipping fees.
beth

 

[RunAround]

Ok thanks. I drew the blood today. It wasn't hard. I have watched the vet draw horse blood plenty of times and I am trained in Phlebotomy so it was really easy! You just shave their neck, place your finger firmly on their neck and the vein will pop right out at you. My mom held while I stuck. Everyone was good except Star who had to twist and turn and scream. Only got about 2 cc's. We will see if thats enough.

Now if I could just trade disbudding with someone.....

Oh and they talk about discount shipping if you give ups a certain number?

 

[RunAround]

Oh also, If I vaccinated for CL then they would come up positive for cl right, cause they have the antibodies :shrug: ? So I shouldn't get the CL test done right?

 

[Thunderhill]

I think biotracking is a little cheaper. They have a page showing how to do it.
http://www.biotracking.com

and here is another place
http://www.pavlab.com/services/index.html

 

[Duchesse]

Ok thanks. I drew the blood today. It wasn't hard. I have watched the vet draw horse blood plenty of times and I am trained in Phlebotomy so it was really easy! You just shave their neck, place your finger firmly on their neck and the vein will pop right out at you. My mom held while I stuck. Everyone was good except Star who had to twist and turn and scream. Only got about 2 cc's. We will see if thats enough.

Now if I could just trade disbudding with someone.....

Oh and they talk about discount shipping if you give ups a certain number?

My 4 doelings are all under a year and came from CAE negative herds. When they are a year old I want to test them. I hope to have mastered this technique by that time. I'll have to find some good goat anatomy material, visual and written instructions for the techniique and observe the technique before trying it myself.

Thanks for these sites, things are looking alot better!

 

[StaceyRosado]

here is a pictoral guide to drawing blood

http://goatconnection.com/articles/publ ... _151.shtml

 

[RunAround]

Drawing blood is really easy! Star was the only one who screamed and cried over the whole thing. The others just stood there and looked for the next treat coming their way! If anything they hated the shaving of their neck more than the actual stick!

You can get the vacutainer tubes from pbs animal health.

 

[Muddy Creek Farm]

Do you have to use a different tube of blood for each test?

 

[Muddy Creek Farm]

Oh and what gauge needle did you use?

 

[RunAround]

I used a 23 gauge butterfly for humans but you can just use a syringe and then stick that into the vacutainer once you get the blood.

You just need one tube of blood but if you are getting a bunch of tests done then I would order 10cc vacutainers, which is a bigger size than what I used. I used a 7 cc one but I could have gotten away with just 3 cc's.

 

[Muddy Creek Farm]

Is their vain easy to find? I shaved a few necks just to look for the vein, and I wasn't sure how big the vain was... Is it pretty large?

 

[RunAround]

It depends on the size of the goat but yeah its pretty big. I will see if I can get some pictures for you tomorrow. You need to press your fingers or thumb firmly against there neck just below where you want to stick. You should see a nice big vein pop up. Just like on people some goats have easier to find veins than others. I prefer the butterfly needles because you get a flash of blood in the hub when you enter the vein. With the other needles you just need to guess and poke around more.

 

[Duchesse]

Where do you purchase your butterflies?

 

[RunAround]

I got them through my mom since she is a nurse but if you just google them you will come up with tons of phlebotomy supply places.