Abscesses/Lumps at CDT Injection Site

[purplequeenvt]

FYI....I do not clean the injection site on my lambs prior to vaccinating either....

 

[mysunwolf]

@mysunwolf - did you also clean the injection site? If not, that could be the "contamination". Think about how dirty sheep are. You are taking a needle and poking a hole through the skin. Dirt on the outside of the skin WILL get under the skin.

I am a phlebotomist and there is a reason we clean your arm before we draw your blood.

Nope, that's the thing we didn't do! I read somewhere that you weren't supposed to do that, but maybe I should start...

 

[purplequeenvt]

Nope, that's the thing we didn't do! I read somewhere that you weren't supposed to do that, but maybe I should start...

I think that you are probably fine not doing it. I don't know anyone, and that includes vets, that clean and injection site. The reality is that your sheep will probably get a little abscess no matter what you do.

 

[Ridgetop]

Still I think it might be a contaminated batch. If it was just dirty skin contaminating the site, think of all the other livestock, horses, etc. that get shots without cleaning the site. I try to pour alcohol on the injection site, but it doesn't always look that clean and I don't get abcesses. Getting abcesses on each animal at each injection site makes me think it is the vaccine that is contaminated. I would get a new bottle and toss the one you have been using. I have heard of other people who have used vaccine and gotten abcesses from just that bottle so . . . .

 

[purplequeenvt]

Our sheep have always gotten small abscesses after vaccines. CD&T or rabies (those being the main vaccines we give). So unless every single batch we've ever used (and we've been raising sheep for 15 years) of any vaccine is contaminated, I don't think that is the issue. I also wonder if the abscess could be an immune response?