Sheep Vacination Needle

[Al R]

We've just had some much needed rain but up here it has been sheep handling weather for months. My farmer's tan is already established.
Being just a small pedigree sheep producer I change needles every dozen or so sheep but I can't say I've ever found a neck abscess when giving the second Hep' or when shearing while my friends often get them on their stock done in worse conditions and being Aberdeenshire after all a needle has to do a fair amount of work to justify the horrendous cost per unit.

The only needle work I do is footvax and that’s the only needles most of my sheep will have ever had, get quite a few lumps yet run a stericap.

 

[Bury the Trash]

I've been somewhat out of action re giving jabs to the sheep, although I have been able to do the cattle. Neck abscess in the ewes noticed at lambing .

Observed at the time of jabbing the operator absentmindedly touched the tip of the vaccinator gun each time the needle was changed, and pointed it out. [Translated]: "You must be mistaken!" was the reply.

Grrr!

With disposable needles that's pretty hard to do, pull off the wrapper, twist the needle on the syringe and when ready pull off the hard plastic cover .
Buy them by the box , good value.

 

[Longlowdog]

Just how often can a needle run through 'the sterilising medium' before it is contaminated? After all. the last thing a needle point does before it touches the next sheep is pass through the outside of the medium that was in contact with the last sheep. I'm guessing it's alcohol that is the sanitiser and it is volatile and subject to dilution if the fleeces are remotely damp and subject to transference from a wet material to a dry one. My own opinion (opinion only no science or fact) is that it gives a false sense of security and leads folk to do far more jags with one needle than folk would do otherwise.

 

[primmiemoo]

With disposable needles that's pretty hard to do, pull off the wrapper, twist the needle on the syringe and when ready pull off the hard plastic cover .
Buy them by the box , good value.

Yes, they're easy. I'm just not sure the disposables stand up to a run of 100 jabs. The s/s ones are properly robust. Just going to have to wrestle the vaccinator off the operator and be an old fusspot.

 

[primmiemoo]

Just how often can a needle run through 'the sterilising medium' before it is contaminated? After all. the last thing a needle point does before it touches the next sheep is pass through the outside of the medium that was in contact with the last sheep. I'm guessing it's alcohol that is the sanitiser and it is volatile and subject to dilution if the fleeces are remotely damp and subject to transference from a wet material to a dry one. My own opinion (opinion only no science or fact) is that it gives a false sense of security and leads folk to do far more jags with one needle than folk would do otherwise.

Sterimatics are for up to 100 jabs per needle and cap. Sometimes, jabbing damp sheep can't be avoided, so changing needle and cap more frequently would be needed for the reasons you've given.

Maybe a perception of cavalier attitude is why we're all going to be required to attend courses?

 

[Longlowdog]

I don't think it is a cavalier attitude, more I blame marketing quoting (perhaps...) tests performed under ideal conditions giving the layman a false sense of security. Shifting the onus to the user without chastising the vendor or real world testing their claims would be unfair.
If I were the vendor I'd jag recently shorn sheep kept cool inside till perfectly dry, handled slowly to avoid warm lanolin and I'm sure I'd have tremendous results, but how often is this the case and who is to blame for believing you get 100 jags to a cap?
'For up to 100' is a dreadful get out phrase, on a damp or red hot day it may only be 20, the buyer thinks he is being cautious by doing 50 and with no malice or carelessness accidentally jags 30 with a contaminated needle, a few of which may react and produce an abscess.
I don't blame the purchaser, it's there on the label 'up to a hundred'.

 

[Highland Mule]

Just how often can a needle run through 'the sterilising medium' before it is contaminated? After all. the last thing a needle point does before it touches the next sheep is pass through the outside of the medium that was in contact with the last sheep. I'm guessing it's alcohol that is the sanitiser and it is volatile and subject to dilution if the fleeces are remotely damp and subject to transference from a wet material to a dry one. My own opinion (opinion only no science or fact) is that it gives a false sense of security and leads folk to do far more jags with one needle than folk would do otherwise.

From https://www.pig333.com/3tres3_common/tienda/doc/Sterimatic-needle-cleaning-system-march-16.pdf

"Stericaps are sealed plastic containers with a foam insert soaked in a biocide disinfectant.
The disinfectant is a mix of 2.5% Glutaraldehyde and 5% Bardac 22 (Didecyl Dimethyl Ammonium Chloride)".

 

[neilo]

I've been somewhat out of action re giving jabs to the sheep, although I have been able to do the cattle. Neck abscess in the ewes noticed at lambing .

Observed at the time of jabbing the operator absentmindedly touched the tip of the vaccinator gun each time the needle was changed, and pointed it out. [Translated]: "You must be mistaken!" was the reply.

Grrr!

How dirty were your operator’s fingers?? Surely the needle is going through an animals skin afterwards, which you would think (hope) were a much greater source of contamination.

I won’t use an awkward Sterimatic and I don’t change needles just because a sheep count has been achieved, only when I feel it’s too blunt. I very rarely see an abscess on any animal, despite injecting sheep many thousands of times a year.
The only time I ever remember seeing any number of abscesses was many years ago, when I was halfway through doing a bunch of 500 lambs with Ovivac P and got caught by a big thunderstorm. Rather than waste the vaccine I’d already used, I chose to finish off jabbing the wet lambs. I won’t do that again!

 

[neilo]

The only needle work I do is footvax and that’s the only needles most of my sheep will have ever had, get quite a few lumps yet run a stericap.

The oil adjuvant in Footvax will commonly form a temporary swelling, which is separate to an abscess from external contamination, which you ‘May’ get as well of course.

 

[Bury the Trash]

Yes, they're easy. I'm just not sure the disposables stand up to a run of 100 jabs. The s/s ones are properly robust. Just going to have to wrestle the vaccinator off the operator and be an old fusspot.

Yes get it back and DIY.


I now picture a benny hill type chase around the sheep yard..

 

[primmiemoo]

How dirty were your operator’s fingers?? Surely the needle is going through an animals skin afterwards, which you would think (hope) were a much greater source of contamination.

I won’t use an awkward Sterimatic and I don’t change needles just because a sheep count has been achieved, only when I feel it’s too blunt. I very rarely see an abscess on any animal, despite injecting sheep many thousands of times a year.
The only time I ever remember seeing any number of abscesses was many years ago, when I was halfway through doing a bunch of 500 lambs with Ovivac P and got caught by a big thunderstorm. Rather than waste the vaccine I’d already used, I chose to finish off jabbing the wet lambs. I won’t do that again!

Each vaccination site was protected by the sterimatic, but I think that touching the needle holder on the vaccinator caused a problem further up that the sterimatic could not be expected to deal with.

 

[hally]

Sharpened on a concrete block wall once a year, when it gets just too blunt to push in?
[/QUOTE
Ideally you need one with a bit of a curl on the end so you can feel it going in?
When the curl gets too severe you can then bend it back on the breeze block wall which if you look down the holes is often a ready supply of replacement needles and syringes.........handy?

 

[Y Fan Wen]

My kind of farmers!