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Giving injections at home

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Sappho

Sappho

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I'm currently having to give my piggy Bertie antibiotic injections at home after having his toe amputated.

I've had to do it before as he is intolerant of antibiotics by mouth even with probiotics (I've been through nearly every available one). My problem is that this time, my new vet has sent me home with much thicker needles and I'm really struggling with actually getting it through his skin. It's painful for him (I know its not meant to be pleasant, but its clearly more than uncomfortable).

Has anyone else any tips on this? I'm doing it exactly the way my vet has shown me, and I'll be ringing them after the weekend anyway, but just wondered how other people had found this?
 
Sappho said:
I'm currently having to give my piggy Bertie antibiotic injections at home after having his toe amputated.

I've had to do it before as he is intolerant of antibiotics by mouth even with probiotics (I've been through nearly every available one). My problem is that this time, my new vet has sent me home with much thicker needles and I'm really struggling with actually getting it through his skin. It's painful for him (I know its not meant to be pleasant, but its clearly more than uncomfortable).

Has anyone else any tips on this? I'm doing it exactly the way my vet has shown me, and I'll be ringing them after the weekend anyway, but just wondered how other people had found this?
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I injected Cameo a lot post-op as I was very involved with her care at the vets (joys of being staff!).

One of the medications that she had was quite thick, so needed a thicker needle, which was more difficult to get through the skin, but was necessary due to the viscosity of the fluid. Everything else she had was ok for a finer needle.

Another thing that I found (after 3 weeks of injections!) that the skin where she was being injected became thickened. She was being injected in what would be the scruff of her neck, so one day she'd be injected slightly to the left of the midline, the next day on the midline, the next day slightly to the right of the midline, then back to the left again. This just cut down on the amount of time the needle was going into the same area of skin and did make it a little easier.

If you're really struggling, call your vet tomorrow and see if you can arrange to collect some narrower bore needles. They shouldn't mind. If someone called me out of hours with that request I wouldn't mind as long as they came in when we weren't up to our eyeballs in sick animals!

Oh, forgot to add - Cameo got very aware of what an injection was, and was very "painful" and "uncomfortable" - before the needle went anywhere near her rolleyes
 
Thank you for such a speedy reply! And really useful too.

I will definitely try a different place on his scruff - he's had a lot of injections there over the years, so might well be that it is a bit thicker than elsewhere.

The fluid is very thin, so I can't imagine that smaller needles are going to be a problem, so I will give them a call and see if I can pick some up. I absolutely hate causing him pain, but it seems that he and Cameo have something in common - the minute he feels me pinch up his skin, he knows what's coming, and squeals his head off!
 
What size/colour/make of needles do you have?

Normal ones for piggy sub-q's are orange (Becton dickinson 0.5 x 16mm).

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Are you injecting in the same place...?
My dog is diabetic and has to be injected twice a day... And where his scruff of his neck and back have been injected his skin has become thick and hard... Making it a bit of a task to inject him now...
When you pull the skin up we found with our dog if you inject going in slightly side ways rather than the angle of straight down his back he found it more barable... Have no idea why...
I am aware that all of what I just said is probably useless... :))
Being as it's all about my dog rather than a pig... But it's all I know about injecting...
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Injecting in the scruff is painful for piggies because they have a fat pad there. You should always inject in the shoulder. I agree with the above, move the injection site around so you are not going in the same place. You should never have a problem getting any size needle under the skin unless it its blunt.

x.
 
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