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Re: [RC] needle shy horse - Heidi SmithAlong with what Heidi said, speed and a diabolical air of innocence is everything in injecting a needle-shy horse. You can remove the needle from the syringe, hold it firmly between two fingers and just slap it into the pecs of the horse. If they jump, fine. Step back and let them. If you use a 1 1/2" 20 gauge needle, it won't fall out if you inserted it all the way to the hub. Once they settle down, attach the syringe and inject it *quickly*. You don't need to mess with pre-swabbing with alcohol (which is 99.9% for the owner's benefit, anyway), if the horse is really filthy, then brush him down or wait until after a bath. Local topical anesthetics IMO just make the horse suspicious that something is about to happen, and owner anticipation is usually the big giveaway, as Heidi said. JUST DO IT. Susan is right on the money here. And like her, I've frequently had the last laugh injecting the "uninjectables." And often drawing blood on them as well. The ones that are the most troublesome are the horses that go off their rockers just being touched--when they are whirling around their owners before one even tries to approach them, they can be challenging. <sigh> As Truman stated, though, with some spoiled horses, not being able to see sure helps. But then that's just one more reason for using the pecs for vaccines--doesn't help with jugular sticks, but one can inject in the pecs without the horse ever seeing the syringe or needle. When I was a kid, we did have one mare that we blindfolded with a towel for injections, and then she would stand like a rock. I think I saw more horses really tweaky about needles back then, mostly due to the fact that we had to give the old-fashioned encephalomyelitis vaccines that went intradermally, which was a lot trickier than just sticking in a nice swift IM... Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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