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Frequently Asked Questions

What size to use?

POINT LENGTHS

MICE
3 MM - FOR ONLY 1 OR 2 DROPS
4 MM - UNDER 2 MONTHS
5 MM - 2 TO 6 MONTHS
5.5 MM - OVER 6 MONTHS

RATS
5.5 MM OR 6 MM - UNDER 3 MONTHS
6 MM OR 7 MM-3 TO 4 MONTHS
7 MM OR 8 MM - OVER 5 MONTHS

CHICKENS - 4 MM

PIGS - 5 MM

PRIMATES - 3 MM OR 4 MM

TATTOO IDENTIFICATION - 3 MM

ALWAYS USE THE SHORTEST POINT POSSIBLE TO DRAW THE AMOUNT OF BLOOD YOU NEED

Finding the right Location

The correct spot is just behind and above the tip of the Mandibular bone

Mouse Veins X-Ray 300 x 210 with text

Scruff the mouse and then find the tip of the Mandibular bone using your finger or the back end of the Goldenrod Lancet. The correct spot is just behind and above the tip of the Mandibular bone.

 

If you’re still having trouble finding the right location:

Take an Albino (White) mouse and put some Vaseline on a Q-Tip. Swab the Vaseline on the rear of the jaw bone area and use the Q-Tip to separate the fur. You should be able to see the veins beneath the skin.

mouse-2-300-x-210-new

Blood Comes Out of The Mouse’s Ear

If Blood comes out of the ear of your mouse, you made the puncture a little bit high towards the ear. Try a little lower, towards the jaw line. Your mouse will be fine, there will be no negative effect on the mouse.

How to get more Blood

If you’re not getting enough blood, you may try the following technique. Always remember to consult the PHS Guidelines for the recommended safe amounts of blood that can be drawn from your size mouse.

When you scruff the mouse, hold the skin on the back of its neck between your thumb and middle finger. When you want more blood, put your index finger on the top of its head and gently move its head up and down. This will keep the wound open a little longer and pump more blood into the Submandibular area and out the puncture site.

Remember, you can always stop the blood flow at any time by gently pressing the puncture site with a compress for a short time. Blood flow will stop quickly for the following reasons:

  1. The animal is experiencing only a small thin puncture wound, there is no cutting or tearing of blood vessels as with Tail Clips or R.O. Bleeds. Goldenrod Animal Lancets are only seven-thousandths of an inch thick(.007”).
  2. Only the very tip of the lancet actually enters the blood vessels, the rest of the length of the lancet is to get beneath the fur and outer layers of skin and tissue so that the wound to blood vessels
    is very small.
  3. All furry animals have a natural coagulant in their fur as part of their survival mechanism. When you apply a compress to the puncture site, some of this coagulant enters the opening and helps stop the blood flow.

How often can you draw blood?

Always remember to consult the PHS Guidelines for the recommended safe amounts of blood that can be drawn from your size mouse.

You can draw blood at lease four (4) times within a short time period without hurting your animal as long as you follow the PHS Guidelines for the amount taken in that time period.

Use the following procedure for multiple draws within a short time interval:

  1. Make the first puncture on one side of the animal’s face.
  2. Make the second puncture on the other side of the face.
  3. Make the third puncture on the side you made the first puncture but enter a little higher or lower than the first one. Goldenrod Animal Lancets are only seven thousandths (.007) of an inch thick and the cluster of blood vessels is large enough to enter a little higher or lower and still draw blood.
  4. Repeat #3 above on the side you make the second puncture

How to avoid scarring and hematoma’s

The facial muscles of a mouse or rat run fairly parallel to the bottom of the jaw line, that is, along the face from the nose/ Whiskers towards the ear.

If you alien the Goldenrod Animal Lancet with the striations of the muscles in the animal’s face so that when it enters the facial muscles it goes between the striations instead of across them, it will cause less damage to the muscle tissue and therefore cause less scarring and there will be less chance of hematoma formation.

Collection Vials

Note that the collection vials shown on our website are BD Microtainer Blood Collection Tubes.