Giving Shots

Well Remi, even my tamest of tame won't let me unless they are really sick. Unless you have a handling chute that they are used to.



With fawns and their boosters(at 2 or 3 months old), I think that too much handling stress on them would be worse than not getting it.

I've done it by feeding em something and reaching over to the top of the shoulder(center) as you face them. Slip the needle in slow right between the shoulder blades and thumb push the meds in.



IM shots can be given with a short(1/2"-1") 18ga needle on a short(3") syringe, one handed in a large ham muscle.



they become needle shy pretty quick....

I just dart mine on fawn I use a blowgun

Remi, I hold the syringe like in this picture. I use a 1/2" needle. Easy to do one handed. Aim behind the shoulder along the ribs and hit the animal at about a 45 degree angle pushing the plunger at the same time. Unless the liquid is thick I can usually get it all in before they jump. You'll have to practice to be quick. For thicker meds use a larger gauge needle. I use up to 16 gauge. I used to doctor cattle at feedyards in Texas and some days I'd give several thousand shots running them through a squeeze chute. We used multi dose syringes but the principle was the same.

give him a treat with your left hand and rub his neck with your right hand till he gets over the shot experience

I had an older buck that ended up dying of cancer. Before he died I treated him for about a year hand injecting at least 50 shots. He was tame enough to come in my office in the barn for peanut butter sandwiches that I'd fix him in my kitchen there. He'd follow me in the bathroom and drank water out of the lavatory while the water was running. Even he got shy of the syringes but I'd catch him in the hall and act like I was just walking past him then stick him as I walked by. You might try practicing on a sack of feed with just air in the syringe. Other than that you have to dart or put them in the handler. Either way you need to figure out what's best now before you get in a bind and really need it. One other note is they can sense your nervousness. You have to be calm and act like nothings up. You can get fast with practice. Good luck.

My deer are more nervous around a syringe in my hand than a 3' jab stick from Henry Martin. That thing works like a champ.

But can you give a SQ shot with it, Travis? I think that's what Remi originally wanted to know. SQ has less muscle trauma but the shots can often be given IM as well. I'm sure the jab stick works great for IM. By far, most of my darts are shot with Dex or antibiotics. Most are SQ preferred but my vet and I agree, IM is often better than running a sick deer through the handler to give SQ.