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GIVING SHOTS & INJECTIONS
By: "GoatWorld Message Forum Users"
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I am having trouble with giving shots. Where is the best place to do so on a goat? This is a subQ (subcutaneous - under the skin) injection that I am giving. I think part of it is my nerves, but I can not seem to get enough loose skin. Once the needle even went out the other side of the fold of skin and I had to start over. I am worried because a little bit has oozed out twice now. Also, does the needle have to go all the way in? That is what I have been doing.
I have been where your at! The first time I did what you said, some went through and I felt I was not finding enough loose skin. This time we went to a 20 gauge needle that is only 1/2 inch long and that really helped. The needle went in and did not come out. There are several places you can give the shot. Some do it up near the head - high on the neck. Others do it inside up high on the back leg so if they get lumps they do not show. Some use the wither area which is where I did it the first time. The most common area is in the loose skin on the body right behind the front leg which is where we gave it this last time. Many breeders do give those shots in the muscle as well but I have not tried that. I have been told that the reason it is suggested under the skin is because the vaccine was originally designed for sheep and it was under the skin so as not to ruin any meat (CD/T injections). I do not know if that is true as it is just what I have been told. Nonetheless, I followed the directions and gave it under the skin. The smaller needle made a lot of difference for us this second time. After a time or two you will get the hang of it.
When giving anything under the skin (subQ), it is easiest to pick right behind the front elbow, over the ribs. Pull out the skin, forming a tent. This tent you are making will then have the needle inserted from the top side of the goat, just like you are crawling down into the tent, pointing your needle towards the ground. We teach the 4H kids with water and a nylon over an orange for subQ. For IM (intramuscularly) we just inject the orange.
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This is LA-200 that I am injecting with an 18 gauge x 1 inch needle if that matters?
If I'm not mistaken, which I could be, I believe that LA-200 is given IM (intramuscularly). This antibiotic stings like... well, lets just say from personal experience and a bad aim you can feel it burn! I believe that Biomycin, another brand of this uses a different carrier which dosn't have the stinging agent. I usually use either an 18 or 20 guage needle. I tend to use the 18 gauge needles on more viscous liquids like Penicillin or Ivomec. On CD/T and other thinner liquid injections I use the 20's. Always check the label for routes of administration and dosages! (and don't worry.. 99.2% of the time, goats are not on it!) One last note - if you're using this to treat some kind of infection, which I'm sure you are, be sure to complete the treatment and at the right dosage or else it may not work the 2nd time around. For some problems, it is very hard to find an antibiotic that's still effective becuase of mis-use.
Goat Medicine advises not to give any antibiotics IM in goats. I also do the same thing, except with prescription drugs and the only prescription antibiotic I use is Naxcel. I have had advice from my vet to use a first "loading dose" of antibiotics IM, then switching to subQ for subsequent dosages. If you think about this, if an animal is going to have shots for 5 days, what muscle mass are you going to move to on day 5 that isn't already necrosed from a previous shot? I think the subQ route is much more manageable for folks and definatly for the goats.
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