welcome back to my channel my name is haley and today we are going to be drawing some blood now
don't freak out it's not as awful as what you think it is um and what we're actually doing
is going to be drawing blood from siri because we're going to do a progesterone test on her
um and i had to do like a ton of research on it and i just thought i would kind of compile that
research into a quick little video for you guys we do our own progesterone testing our own blood
draws because it's just way more economical for us um and way more convenient honestly so
that's what we're doing here um i have talked to a lot of phlebotomists i am not one but i have
friends that are and i've talked to a lot of vet techs and i've talked to a lot of vets and they've
all given me tips as well as scouring the internet and reading as much as i can and watching a ton of
videos and this is basically what has worked for us i'm trying to take a little bit from everything
and figure out what works so what i have here is i have my needles my syringes that we will link
below i have my towel because i don't want her on my kitchen table i do prefer though a bath mat
because it's grippy on the bottom and they don't go sliding around so that makes it a little bit
easier i have my sterile tubes to put the blood in after i've collected and i have this little to
be holder thing to keep it where i'll let it coagulate and then i have my rubbing alcohol
a couple things that i have learned is whenever you talk to a vet tech or a vet they will
always say that in a bulldog that the neck the jugular vein is the easiest one to draw from
i can never find it and then i just feel like i'm digging around in there and i don't like that
even though dogs have a much higher pain tolerance than people so as you are practicing don't freak
out too much about whatever pain you think you might be causing i mean obviously you don't want
to dig around in there and be like brutal but they have a much higher pain tolerance than what we do
so you're not doing it on a person um you're not doing it on your kid so keep that in mind
i also did a bunch of bunch of research on those like fake arm
things that you see that they'll use for like in classes and from everybody that i've talked to
they say that they're not worth the money that you say that just by doing it practicing real
life experience basically it's going to be your best bet and that's just what i have found as well
whether it's the angle of the needle technique all of those things have just come from
trial and error basically something else to keep in mind is that when you take your dog into the
vet if they're going to be having surgery like a c-section or a surgical insemination the vet
is going to put the iv catheter in one of their front arms generally so you don't want to keep
poking the same arm that the vet is going to be using you can build up scar tissue you can also
cause that vein to weaken and make the vet or the tech's job more difficult because the vein
will either have to go through the scar tissue or the vein will blow so try to pay attention if
you're going to be doing this to what arm your vet generally uses um i know at our vet when he
goes to do a c-section he generally puts it in the dog's left front arm so i practice on the
right that way or i draw from the right that way i'm not going to be interfering with what they're
going to be needing so when you are prepping a couple of things that i suggest doing that i found
to be helpful when you are opening your syringe we've had a couple accidents where the needle
the tip of the needle because it spins off you want to make sure that it's been it's tightened
right you don't want it to pop off in their arm then you have blood going everywhere it's awful
um loosen the cap because the cap will be on there pretty tight and you want to loosen the suction
right that has a little bit of tension on the inside of the syringe so by just going like
this you're loosening that up so that way when you do have the flash of blood you can pull that
back pretty quickly um you don't want to just sit there and just like you know you want to go
faster because the dog's on the table um i also found it a little bit better a little bit useful
to just leave a little bit of air because it kind of creates like a vacuum so that way when you do
hit the vein that flash of blood happens quickly and then i know that i've hit it i don't have to
look around for it and then hopefully try to pull it back i already know where it's at um and when
i was doing my research i kept hearing them say look for the bubble and then i realized that it's
not the bubble it's the bevel so in your needle at the tip of your needle you will see that there is
like a little like it's just it's a bevel i don't know how to explain it other than there's a longer
pointy end and a little tiny hole in the tip of it um so look for that and that bevel needs to go up
i don't know why but that's what everybody says so just that's what you do um you also want to make
sure that your hands are clean i don't wear gloves but if gloves make you feel more comfortable then
do that i just make sure that i wash and sanitize my hands i just can't feel the vein as well so i
don't wear gloves but my hands are clean and i make sure that all of my utensils are clean and
that's another reason why you have rubbing alcohol rubbing alcohol can also help make the vein pop
through the skin it's a little bit easier to see so that's helpful as well if you're struggling or
you're first starting out try shaving the location that you're going to be drawing the blood from
it just helps it stand out a little bit more so we're gonna be doing siri um she's currently
pregnant and it's coming up on her due date so i'm gonna be doing a reverse progesterone test
so sometimes when they're pregnant the veins are a little bit more
uncooperative so i'm gonna start without shaving but if i have to shave it then you'll guys get
to see both um but we'll see what happens we'll see how siri does so this is miss siri
and we're going to i'm going to go ahead and draw her blood like i said the vet usually puts the
catheter in her left arm so i'm going to draw the blood on her right um i have my tourniquet here
you want to get it above the elbow ivy my assistant's going to hold her yeah
i haven't attempted this on my own yet so i would definitely suggest having
somebody help hold the dog um you want to get it nice and tight above the elbow
okay once you get that nice and tight you kind of hold the arm and kind of
twist the pawl just a little bit so that it kind of puts the vein more up on top
i know it's cold huh mama soak it up
right here is the vein just feel around a little bit until you fit it's kind of it's kind of bouncy
when you hit the vein it's kind of a bouncy spot it's not stiff like a muscle it's bouncy so there
is my needle bevel up i have air in the tube you kind of go at a little bit of an angle and go down
there we go let's move it around a little bit then you put pressure hold it
don't stab yourself and release make sure the blood clots and depending on
what type of test you're doing and the machine that you're using will depend on how much blood
you need i don't usually need a lot so here we go girl yep again thank you all right that's it for
the blood draw pretty simple and um just practice let us know if you have any questions down below