From:
"Meryl Faulkner"
Date: 2009-03-05 23:43:26 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Xena (kidney failure) difficulties with giving subcu fluids
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
In ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com, "possum1213" <gator524@...> wrote:
>
> Are you giving her something to eat while giving the fluids? I fix a small bowl of soup and the ferret is usually so busy slurping it down, it doesn't even notice the needle.
>
> Katharine
Katherine,
I think that you hit on part of my problem. I've been trying to keep her fed well, and so recently sometimes when I've fed her frequently she's not that hungry for a treat when I'm going to subcu her. So when I started having trouble, (probably because she didn't need the chicken soup) I started getting more nervous because she was more aware of my attempt to subcu her. This morning I had errands to run, and missed her early feed because she was fast asleep in my bedroom. When I returned at 11am she was in the kitchen, and looked alert when she heard the clink of spoon in the chicken jar.
Emboldened by Sukie's reply about the use of the the same part of the neck to insert the needle, when she started drinking her chickeny gruel, I first firmly stroked/massaged her a few times on the neck and back to try to get her used to the idea - and to relax me - pulled up a big chunk of skin over her neck between my thumb and fingers, then firmly drove the needle into the tented skin. To my tremendous relief Xena continued to lap and seemed impervious to the stick. She got a nice pale looking bump centrally over her shoulder blades in about 20 or 30 seconds, and I got nearly 30 ccs in. She hardly noticed when I removed the needle. What a relief. If this evening I have the same success, I'm going to assume it was my effort to change the sc site and then when I had problems my hesitation at needle insertions made things worse.
I'm hoping it was my technique that caused the problem. Being firmer and less hesitant may work.
Meryl
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