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How do you use a nebuliser?

N

nessar

Warren Veteran
On the advice of my vet I've bought a little nebuliser for Barney. It's just a cheap little portable one for £16 bought on eBay. If it seems to help I may buy a better one later on.

Now, the instructions are clearly translated (very badly!) from another language and are quite unclear.

I understand from them that I need to disinfect the pieces of equipment before and after each use, is this correct? How do you do this?

It also seems I need to get some 'atomised' water to put in the medicine cup.... What is this and where can I buy it? I won't be putting medicine in it, or at least not at first. I think it is also saying that the water needs to be more than 20 degrees centigrade but less than 40c, is this right and if so how do I heat up this special water?

Also... I'm assuming as he is a rabbit that I don't need to clean his teeth after using it like the instructions say but should I be doing anything else after?

Thanks in advance :)
 
Last edited:
I used to use sterile saline such as this:

http://www.boots.com/en/Boots-Sterile-Saline-Travel-Pack-360ml-_1132027/

I used to just wash the medicine cup in hot soapy water and rinse well. I also would run the machine for about 30 secs after removing the cup so that any moisture in the tube was flushed out.

Bluebell would sit still as I held the mask up to him but we found it more effective to create him a little chamber out of a plastic box. We just cut a hole to fit the nose tube through.
 
you can buy a drip bag of saline from the vets and use a needle and syringe to get it out to use.

i sterilise the nebuliser equipment in milton fluid. :wave:

eta: we also used a plastic box to make a chamber and made a hole in it for the nozzle to fit through. :wave:
 
Thank you for your replies, both of you. I did read them but was probably on my phone as I didn't reply, sorry.

A little update .... I've been using it for a while now but not noticing any dramatic improvement :(

How long do you use it for? I tend to put him in a carrier for about half an hour, I cover the carrier with a towel to keep the steam in. I'm just using saline from a drip-bag, thank you for the idea on that one biscandmatt! Sooo much cheaper buying it that way than the capsules the pharmacy recommended, which were £1.20 each for a single-use mini capsule :shock:

I haven't been disinfecting it every day, some days I just tip out the water and add new in... is this okay?
 
I use a large storage box with a hole cut out for the tubing and another hole for the hook on the cup to sit it.

I run it for 20-25 mins as per vet instructions. We were doing it twice a day but now down to once a day. I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes compared to the streptacare but Nutmeg likes being in there. She has her morning pellets in there too so she can eat them in peace and I give her slightly more to help her keep some weight on.

Personally I've found using a box better than a towel covered carrier. It keeps the 'steam' in better. Also check to see if it has filters that may need replacing if it's second hand. I only realised this a few months ago :oops:

I get drip bag saline from the vets. Relatively inexpensive :)

Oh and I should clean the cup everyday but it's a faff getting it in and out so I generally do it once or twice a week. Wouldn't recommend that though :oops:
 
What do you do for ventilation in the box? I'd be worried he would get really hot in there or run out of oxygen... or would the nebuliser prevent that?

I've just got a cheap hand-held nebuliser at the moment, so I don't think it has filters :? should it do? On the plus side, it is super quiet, can't hear it at all unless you are right next to it.
 
The nebuliser is pumping air in so it's fine :) I don't know for sure but I would assume they all have filters. They're probably quite small, the ones on mine are the size of a 10p coin roughly. Maybe google the model number and the word filters and see what comes up? I didn't change the ones on mine for over a year though so I think you'll be ok for the time being!
 
nessar said:
What do you do for ventilation in the box? I'd be worried he would get really hot in there or run out of oxygen... or would the nebuliser prevent that?

I've just got a cheap hand-held nebuliser at the moment, so I don't think it has filters :? should it do? On the plus side, it is super quiet, can't hear it at all unless you are right next to it.
Click to expand...

i used to worry about the air flow so left a tiny gap next to the nozzle. just small enough to let a tiny bit of steam out, but enough that i could relax and not think they would run out of air :roll::oops:
 
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