Dear all:
Yesterday we trapped an adult of brown booby. I tried to extract blood, but I did not see any vein clearly, neither in the tibia, tarsus or the braquial.
I would like to ask where do you think it is the better place to extract the blood, if you have any picture, or any recommendation about how to proceed. I think that it is usually done in the tibia, but I have no experience with this.
Many thanks and best regards!
its usually in brachial
hope it could be helpful
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.427.6342&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Puncture of the alar vein w a 24 g needle and subsequent collection with a capillary tube or similar works well for most species. A Tarsus bleed too can be effective but only if the feet are kept warm...cold feet = no blood.
Good luck!
Go for the wing, there are several 'access points' that would be suitable on such a large bird, so there is some room for mistakes. For a bird this size you also would not need to puncture + use capillary tube: a syringe should work fine and allow for a controlled bleeding (= helpful if you need to extract larger amounts of blood).
Also - do not use water to wet the feathers (if this is what you have been doing). It does not penetrate well so it is more difficult to see the veins. Use EtOH (or a chlorhexidine solution) instead. It will simplify your 'search'.
Good luck!
Thanks to all!!
We will try with the brachial vein then.
Andreas, it is difficult getting alcohol in this island, but we found 91% Isopropyl alcohol. Hope it is enough to wet the area and make the vein dilate!!
Many thanks again,
I would suggest NOT using alcohol as it can have a cooling effect and so restrict blood flow. However, this may be less of a problem in a tropical site (it is a problem here in the far north! (45 N)
in fact I am using alcohol, but it works fine and I prefer clean the area before opening the skin with the syringe.
But alcochol is essentially a vasodilator
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