Bolus administration tips
At this time of the year, many animals are bolused with Zinc bullets so I thought I’d share some tips to make the job easier.- In cattle, a headbail will make things safer and prevent the head from swinging around.
- Preloading the gun before getting to the animal is essential, you don’t want to have to grab their head twice!
- A little bit of obstetric lubricant on the tip of the bolus gun helps a great deal.
- Hold the animals head up and out straight, not pointing to the sky. This will give a good straight line to the back of the throat.
- In cattle, you can gently hold the tongue to the side before inserting the gun. Gently as you can hurt the nerves/bones at the back of the tongue!
- Insert the gun at the side of the mouth where there are no teeth- often in sheep, this means you don’t have to put your hand in their mouth.
- Go slowly- preventing scratches/injury to the mouth.
- Once inserted to the base of the tongue WAIT until the animal swallows to go further- pushing without a swallow can cause damage.
- Once swallowed, release the bolus by squeezing the gun.
- Remove carefully. In cattle don’t release the head with the gun half out as they can swing the metal gun into you.
- Watch to make sure they have swallowed before moving on to the next animal!
Date Added: Wednesday, 4th March 2020
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