 Quick Update
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Feb. 18th, 2011 @ 10:46 am 
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The vet is gonna charge us $45 to come to the farm, and $10/goat for the blood draw. :gulp: Still, we *gotta* get this done, and I figure this as education charges. (Still, though - $10 EACH???? I have the blood tubes....wonder if he'll cut us a discount for that?) Also - if you need to get med supplies (syringes/needles/gloves/blood tubes/etc), the CHEAPEST place I've found is Med Vet. Seriously, blood draw tubes were 100 for $25 (with shipping!).....I just placed an order with them. $88 got me 24 generic Vet Wraps, *200* 3 cc syringes (1 box was free), 100 5cc syringes, 100 20 gauge needles, 1 sharps container, 2 boxes of nitril gloves (1 L, 1 M) and 2 XL Classic Kongs (what??? I have 2 HUGE dogs that LOVE Kongs, and PetSmart wants $19.99 EACH. I got 2 for $19.16...) These guys ship fast, and the quality seems high - the vaccutainer tubes I got are identical to the ones the vet downstairs gave me. And...the website prices are lower than their eBay prices....:heh: They carry just about everything - suture kits (on my list for later), scrubs, even some RX meds - I don't know how competitive the prices are there, because I let my vet order those for me. Everything else, though is WELL below what I've been paying locally. I *highly* recommend them if you need to stock up on supplies - kidding season is just around the corner! (The pet supplies are also competitivly priced - if you need dog stuff, check them out. I'll go back later and get more dog toys) Current Mood:  happy |
When we had the vet come out and bangs vaccinate our heifer's, there was 45 of them, along with the neighbors 27, and the other neighbors 7, our part of the vet charge was $67.40, that was vaccinating the 45 heifers and mileage. I know we have cattle, but we just use a vaccine gun, we have small one for when we eartag and vaccinate the newborn calves, and then we have two larger ones when we vaccinate the calves at branding time, fall shots, and vaccinating the cows. Usually the cattle are moving around in the alleyway, when were trying to vaccinate, and usually one person is giving the shots, a gun in each hand, and usually the guys give you 20 minutes to vaccinate 12 head of calves, anything longer than that and they are chomping at the bit. We do use the disposable syringes when we worm the horses with the liquid ivermectin. And vaccinations. I'm so not ready for calving season this year. we have 250 cows and 45 heifers this year, and a few mares. I haven't even been out to the calving chute to see what is needed out there, not that we use it allot, since we switched over to low birth weight bulls. But I'll have to check them out for pet supplies. The dog usually is hard on his toys and chews. Wow - your vet is pretty cheap! I'm not complaining - it's hard to find a vet that'll do goats, but...once we learn *where* the vein is, we'll be doing the blood draws alone. I can't pay $10/goat every year, just to see if they're open or bred. 250 cows! Wow.....makes my 20 goats look a lot more manageable! I hope the Kong is a real one - they say it is. If so, it's a fantastic bargain - half what PetSmart charges. Even adding shipping (I think it's $10 for orders under $100), I'm still coming out ahead, pretty much. Our 2 puppies are hard on toys, too - our backyard looks like a blizzard hit, what with all the stuffing scattered around. :lol: I wonder if you can ultra sound goats? We ultra sound our cows, not by the vet but our neighbor ultra sounds bulls for there rib eyes, and she also preg checks our cows. It's about 1.50 a cow. Which is nice to know just how far along they are. It's not that bad, since we went to the short gestation bulls, the calves are small, like 70 lbs. Usually it's the heifer's that we end up pulling the calves. In the middle of calving season we will be getting 10-15 calves a day. The only thing that is hard is getting the calves tagged and vaccinated and sorting the pairs off of the heavies. Wonder if Smokey likes Kongs? He's pretty picky on his toys and chews. He likes the Dingo chews the ones that have stuff in the middle. You can US goats - IF you have an ultrasound machine. The only vet in the area that's willing to look at goats, unfortunately, doesn't. I've priced them (I figured, at 20 does it would be worth the eBay money to purchase one), but just can't swing the $1K+ for a small portable one. There's a...thing out there called a "Preg-Tone". It's $500-ish, and it's supposed to sound an audible tone when there's amniotic fluid detected. However, reviews seem to point to it not working so well in goats.....so I'm back to looking at used ultrasounds. I'd like one, not only to see who's bred and who's not, but to see how many are in there - goats are notorious for twins and trips....and I'd like to know going into the labor how many kids to expect. Right now, I either "bounce" the doe's belly (which annoys them :grin:) or go in.... If Smokey chews a lot, he'll LOVE Kongs. You can fill them with treats, and they get to try and get them out. All of mine love them - or the treats inside. :lol: That's just nuts that the vets charge that much to ultra sound a goat, I know our neighbor would do it for just a few bucks a head. I'm trying to figure out if I want to preg check my mare, the kids horse came up lame, and she's the next in line to be gentle enough for a kid to ride. But it cost $99 to have a mare u/s. Smokey loves to chew, he's a Heeler, so he's always chewing on something. Those nonstuffed dog toys, he likes to chew on them and get the squeaker out. |
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