This morning we needed to give a sick calf a shot. Usually this involves Caleb getting on the back of the truck with a rope and me driving around chasing the calf...
usually until the calf gets tired enough we can chase it down on foot or Caleb is lucky enough to get the rope around it's neck.
Yes I said "lucky enough" cause he's not much of a roper and well neither am I. But if you don't believe me check this story out about what happened last winter.
Anways, I really don't like doing it this way cause all the chasing and running really stresses the already sick calf.
So once we catch the wore out little guy we pull out the syringe and needle and give it a shot.
Well yesterday morning we tried this way and well it ended up in a fight and us not catching the little guy...
I didn't want to chase the little guy cause it still had a lot of energy and we were just gonna make him worse, and I knew we had access to an easier and less stressful way...
We'll just shoot the beast...
and yes with a gun.
WHAT!?!?
Don't worry, we might be using a gun, but the calf wont get hit with a bullet...
It will get hit with a syringe and needle full of meds.
The great thing about this method is the animal really doesn't have a clue whats going one till they get hit with the needle and well all it feels like is getting a normal shot.
The gun we are using is Caleb's dad's gun he bought earlier this year...
Umm it's amazing!!
So when you get to the field you have your gun out the window and ready.
Then once you have a clear aim at your target...
Pull your gun up and fire.
And since the gun is a 22 there really isn't much noise, so you don't freak out all the rest of the cattle.
There you can see the needle stuck in the little guys rump. Once it hits the calf it delivers all the meds and then will eventually fall out.
As you can see this little guy just walks away like nothing happened. No stress...
I love it!!
JP
It's a 22 caliber rifle that is set up to shoot a medicine filled syringe out and not a bullet...
You just better make sure your aim is on though! lol I'm sure that is a lot easier. And the next time you guys decide to do the chase thing please let me know and I'll come down with my video camera cause I'm sure I could win some $$ for Funniest Home Video! lol
ReplyDeletelol...I bet you would win, cause usually it a pretty funny thing to watch!!
ReplyDeleteYep. Been there done that.... hubby on back of pickup flying around after a calf... yes. It's quite comical!
ReplyDeleteThats pretty nifty, the shooting the syringe!! Cool!
Glad that is working well for you. There is also this air rifle thing you can use, and the "bullets" are full of the medicine.
ReplyDeleteWell, it looks odd, but I can sure see the ease in getting the job done this way!
ReplyDeleteWow! That's cool, I'll have to look for one!
ReplyDeleteWhere do you find this sort of a gun. I might want to look into getting one.
ReplyDeleteMy dad uses the same thing with his cattle. It's a great route of administration when there isn't a good roper or set of pens near-by, but with the rifle syringe we are kinda limited to the viscosity and dose of meds we can give. Definitely a great tool!
ReplyDelete