Tips on Giving Injections Properly

by Heather Smith Thomas

Injections should be administered properly to minimize tissue damage and reduce risks for reactions and side effects. Veterinarian James England of the University of Idaho's Caine Veterinary Teaching Center offers these tips:

• Whether intramuscular (IM) or subcutaneous (sub-Q), all injections should be given in the neck in front of the shoulder.
• Change needles often — at least each time you refill your syringe.
• Buy vaccine in appropriate-size bottles. "I always buy vaccine in 10-dose vials," he says. "Then it's always fresh, and I don't have a batch that becomes inactivated before I get it used up."
• Modified-live virus (MLV) vaccines should be used within about an hour of mixing them with diluent.
• Use appropiate-size needles. "I routinely use a ¾-inch needle," he says. "Unless you have a chute with a neck-stretcher, you may get one or both hands hurt reaching in to tent the skin for subcutaneous injection with a longer needle. If you put the ¾-inch needle in at about a 45-degree angle, this puts the vaccine under the skin." England says he also prefers a 16-gauge needle because it is a little tougher needle. "A needle can readily bend just in the skin if the animal moves, so I like the shorter, stouter needle," he explains.

• Change needles after you mix vaccine. "If you run a disposable needle through the rubber top of the bottle, put a new needle on your syringe before you inject the next animal. Going through rubber is harder on a disposable needle than going through a cow's skin," England says. "It puts a tiny curl on the tip of the needle, and it won't be as sharp." That makes it harder to put through skin, causes more pain and causes more tissue damage."
  
  I use a separate needle for filling the syringe, then change to a new needle for vaccinating the cows," England says. "Then the first cow has a sharp, clean needle."

• Test needle sharpness. One way to tell if the tip has been blunted is to gently run the length of the needle across the back of your hand. You can easily feel if the needle is still sharp and smooth. If you feel a scratch, you know there's a little burr on the tip.
• Discard dull and bent needles. "If a needle tip gets bumped on the chute, discard it. If it gets bent, don't straighten it; a bent needle is weaker and likely to break. If a needle breaks off in the animal and you can't find it and remove it, you cannot legally sell that animal. That's an adulterated product," England says.
• "When giving multiple injections, have at least 4 inches of space between them," England recommends. That way there won't be as much chance for the products to run together under the skin. If one is an MLV vaccine and the other is a killed product, ingredients in the killed product could inactivate the MLV vaccine.

Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) programs have done a good job of educating stockmen about proper ways to inject their animals, England says. "The beef industry has done well in reducing meat defects due to injections."

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