I went out to feed this morning and like every morning lately, I had to shovel my way to the barn. I had decided to grab a couple of lambs and eartag them. Not hard right? I had some bright green brand new tags and found my eartag gun and grabbed a big fat one. I put the eartag on but the bottom one kept falling off. Figured out later that it has a little holder for it you have to use . Anway I held her still between my knees and used both hands on the gun. It went thru her ear but it didnt' catch the bottom tag and while I am trying to figure out why , she jumps and rips her whole ear open. I get the gun set up again with another tag and catch her again to do the other ear(poor lamb). I get the tag in beautifully but then I can't get it to release the tag. So I am trying to hold onto a squirming heavy lamb with my knees and using both hands to get the gun off. In the meantime she is bleeding all over me because of the split in the other ear. I can't get the gun off and I can't let her go with the gun hanging from her ear so we duck walk together into the tack room so I can find a tool. In the meantime she is not happy and struggling hard the whole way. I grabbed a pair of pliers and pulled the gun off the tag and finally was able to let her go. That was the first and last lamb I did.
I brought the gun inside to figure out why it was not releasing. I sanded the pin down and oiled it and it's better but not good. Maybe I will try vaseline. But I did find the little holder for the bottom tage so one problem is solved, but I may need to buy a new gun today. That was just too hard and traumatic for all involved.
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