Knowing how to draw blood is essential for all veterinary students, veterinarians, staff dealing in various capacities with horses and veterinary assistants. The domestic horse is one of the easiest species to get a blood sample from: given the large-scale anatomy that characterizes it, the horse's jugular vein is roughly the diameter of your thumb.
Steps
Part 1 of 2: Get the blood
Step 1. Prepare the horse
Make sure it is properly locked down and that it is quiet before proceeding to collect your withdrawal. It is enough to keep it tied with a halter and a rope. Ask someone to help you tie it by holding the end of the string attached to the ring.
Step 2. Rub the horse's jugular groove with alcohol-soaked gauze
The jugular sulcus is the longitudinal depression that runs along the neck, where the jugular vein is located.
- To locate it easily; lightly press your fingers on the horse's neck, under the point where you intend to take the sample: you will see the vein swell.
- Rubbing the alcohol-soaked gauze makes it easier to identify the vein and at the same time disinfects the area where the sample will be taken.
Step 3. Compress the jugular vein at the base of the neck making the vein more visible making sampling easier
Step 4. Gently insert the needle
Gently insert a 21 gauge needle, which you will have first connected to a syringe, into the jugular vein, at a 35 ° angle towards the horse's head. Choose a 5, 10 or 20cc syringe based on the amount of blood you need to draw.
- Before inserting the needle, approach the horse from the side and massage or stroke the shoulder first, then the neck, and finally the sampling area. This is very important to reassure him.
- Speak to him in a calm, reassuring voice before and during the blood draw. Remember that horses don't like to be caught off guard and react accordingly.
Step 5. Withdraw the plunger
Once the needle is inserted, pull back the plunger of the syringe and check that the blood is flowing. If you have inserted the needle correctly, the blood will flow easily.
- Once you have drawn the necessary amount of blood, press your thumb on the sample site and gently withdraw the needle.
- Compressing the collection site stabilizes the needle and prevents it from falling out as you remove the needle and syringe.
Part 2 of 2: After the withdrawal
Step 1. Continue to press on the sampling site and check that it does not bleed
Using alcohol-soaked gauze, press on the spot where you took the sample for one minute and check for signs of bleeding.
Compressing the sampling site will prevent bleeding because the pressure exerted by the fingers occludes the hole left by the needle
Step 2. Massage the sampling site
Massaging for 10-30 seconds reduces the pain the horse may experience when the needle is removed.
- Remember that inserting the needle creates a small wound. The massage soothes the pain caused by the wound and relaxes the horse.
- Also, massaging the area can prevent blood clots from forming at the insertion site.
Step 3. Transfer the collected blood to a suitable container
- The most common and easy to use containers are Vacutainers. Vacutainers are vacuum sealed and automatically draw the right amount of blood from the syringe once the needle is inserted into the cap. You can easily buy them at the pharmacy.
- If you need the blood not to clot, transfer it to Vacutainer with the purple cap. Otherwise, you can transfer the blood sample to one with the red cap.
Step 4. Send the sample to the lab
After collection, immediately send the blood sample to a laboratory, or contact the laboratory for further instructions.
Advice
- Blood samples are usually used to monitor the health of horses. The sample is analyzed to evaluate values such as the number of red blood cells, white blood cells and hematocrit.
- For the diagnosis of diseases, there are specific blood tests to look for viral or bacterial infections.
