First time taking a blood sample

[Toonces]

Hey everybody. I've just joined here to ask my question. Without getting into the details, I'm looking at a new business venture where I need to be able to take a blood sample from a large farm animal, probably either cattle or horses. I haven't done this before, but as the veins in these animals are fairly large, this seems like something I could learn.

So my question is... how is this typically done? Are cattle and horses such large animals that they don't even notice being stuck, or are they squeamish and behave aggressively when they know they're about to get a prick? I'm familiar with some techniques to make this easier on the animal, such as cooling or numbing the puncture site beforehand. The volume I need to collect is low (50cc), so my needle gauge can be small.

I'm all ears for advice. Thanks.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

I'm no Veterinarian but they take blood from cows under the tail;
Horses from the neck. Cows are usually restrained in a squeeze chute but horses can react and sometimes violently. Those front feet can strike out very quickly

 

[Older Whiskey]

I would highly suggest looking for another business venture. It would be easier to visit your local meat processor and get blood from them if you just want cattle, horse, or other livestock blood. Taking blood samples from livestock isn't as easy as it may appear.

I can't imagine why you would want to do this, since Vets do it for a specific reason as it pertains to the animals health from which it is subtracted. I can't imagine any rancher going to all the work it takes to get their cattle rounded up and run thru the chute unless it was to their benefit.

 

[Puzzled]

There was a group of individuals that would come to a ranch and literally draw blood from hundreds of sheep. The sheep were restrained, don't remember how much they drew, but it was a paying job for them. They had all the equipment etc. needed to stabilize the samples.
The group would show up once a year, set up at the corrals. This was done several different times, and then there was a rumor concerning the legality of this "group of people" being so far north and I heard no more about this event.