# How to: Draw blood for CAE and other tests.



## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

Made a short video on how to draw blood. I put some things that cause trouble in the description but will reply with a step by step walk through in my next reply on that video. Here is a link to it.


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## SMaxwell (May 20, 2012)

Thanks for the vid. Might save me some money next time. Just seems like sticking something sharp into the jugular vein would not end well, but apparently it seals right up when you take out the needle?


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

The thing to remember is remove your thumb before you remove the needle. If you remove the needle first, you will cause a nasty hematoma. But ya, it seals right back up with no more then a drop of blood


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## Taffy (Dec 9, 2011)

*Drawing Blood*

GREAT video, Dave! Since I'm still new at this I shave the neck first so I get a better view of the vein. Maybe when I'm experienced like you I won't need to. Of course - it'll take me a LOT of years to get anywhere near that much experience - if ever!


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

I shaved the first 40 goats I did as well the first time I did blood draws. But when you are doing 100 a day you get it down pretty fast. I started drawing blood at the farm we worked on. It was just to much money to have a vet out all day drawing as many as 300 goats at a time. So after watching the vet a couple of times, asking a few questions I thought I could do it myself. The shaving did help a ton. you can really see that vein pop out and judge how big and where its going. Not all goats have the same vein style. Then factor in things like if they are fat or young or dehydrated and it can get down right frustrating.

But today went smooth as glass. We drew blood on 51 animals in under 4 hours. And we did the milkers while graining em and the yearlings we did while de worming them, the stinky bucks and a 30 min lunch break. Killing many birds with one stone so to speak. I only had to re poke the needle 4 times. 2 due to flinches (the needle does weird things when they flinch and flex their necks so I like to re do it right) the older buck kept wanting to walk away and my other half isnt strong enough to prevent that and finally a doe had smaller then average veins so took 3 pokes before I found it right.


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## Nanno (Aug 30, 2009)

Cool! Thanks for the video!


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## Taffy (Dec 9, 2011)

*Drawing Blood*

I'm exhausted just reading your post on how many goats you drew blood on yesterday and all you went through!


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## feederseaters (Nov 8, 2009)

Ahh, drawing blood. I know this sounds strange, but I really like doing this. The bucks are almost a challenge but I haven't missed one yet. Its more fun spirited challenge if I can tap them without shaving them first. 
Sheep pose a similar challenge. 
Every year a collegue of mine and I host a Blood Draw Marathon and we ship the draws out to be tested for diseases. Its a good time. We have friendly competitions to see who is the better "chupracabra".

I always win!


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## Charlie Horse (Dec 16, 2012)

Could you link us to the web site that tells where to send the blood, how to package it, how to mark the vials, how much blood, how much money, etc? This looks pretty easy.


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

How much? About 3 ccs is enough to run most tests. if you are doing a full spectrum then it wouldnt hurt to go with 5 ccs. Id call a locale vet and just ask them were they send their blood work off to be done. Here its Washington State University. Have no idea about other schools in other states but WSU actually had a herd of goats for over a decade. They did ground breaking CAE and other test research. They still sell cheeses so am guessing they may still have a herd. We are able to next day the package via the WSU Fedex account for a cost of like 20 to 25 bucks.

How to package. First off you wanna let the vials sit out for about 6-8 hours to allow them to separate. Then you can store in the fridge till the day you send them. Dont keep em longer then 4 or 5 days if possible. Here WSU only tests on a certain day so we draw on sat and send em off monday. 

Package them by rolling each vial in a folded up paper towel. And then package them into your a back tightly next to each other into a zip lock bag. Past that you can choose to use packing peanuts, bubble wrap or newspaper but totally surround all the via with at least a couple of inches between them and the box. This way if the box gets crushed a little, nothing will damage the vials. The stronger the box you can find the better. We like to make cut outs from another box and line the inside of the shipping box to add strength to it. If you want, you can pick up a shipping box at fedex, post office or any office supply store. The choice is yours.

When you find out where you need to send the box, a call to them to see if there is any info they would like on the box. Here we have to list that its going to the ag dept for testing. Also a good time to see if they will allow you to use their fedex account. Its cheaper and if its like here, they will add on the shipping cost to your testing costs in one neat bill.


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

Oh forgot, mark the vials with a number. Here we mark the vial #whatever Owner initial - and then the animals personal tattoo number. So it looks like this

#1 D-001. We have a check sheet we make when we are marking the vials so we can keep track who is who. That check sheet stays with us. The tester doesnt care what you put on there though. So if you want you can just put a number and the goats name


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