What happens if I miss 1 dose of penicillin injection?!!

Hi everyone,

As many may know I am really struggling with injecting honey, personally I hate doing it & every time I have, it's gone wrong!!!

A vets up the road from me have kindly been helping & doing it each evening for me. However they are closed over the weekend & ive just tried now & again it's gone wrong. I know this is not ideal but do you think it's okay if I leave it out for tonight & make sure I find another vet to help me out tomorrow?

Just want people's thoughts, she is on daily pencilin injections, and had one tomorrow evening & I'll make sure someone does it tomorrow, but do you think she'll be okay for tonight? If not, it might be a case of driving all the way to Swindon which is only going to stress her out even more!

Please help Xx

Ruthyjones89 said:

Hi everyone,

As many may know I am really struggling with injecting honey, personally I hate doing it & every time I have, it's gone wrong!!!

A vets up the road from me have kindly been helping & doing it each evening for me. However they are closed over the weekend & ive just tried now & again it's gone wrong. I know this is not ideal but do you think it's okay if I leave it out for tonight & make sure I find another vet to help me out tomorrow?

Just want people's thoughts, she is on daily pencilin injections, and had one tomorrow evening & I'll make sure someone does it tomorrow, but do you think she'll be okay for tonight? If not, it might be a case of driving all the way to Swindon which is only going to stress her out even more!

Please help Xx

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Personally I'd not want to transport her unless 100% essential. Can you call GWR and ask their advice ? I dont think missing the one dose will cause any serious issues. The fact that stress significantly exacerbates Honey's vestibular symptoms I think transporting her would be more of a problem than missing one dose of Penicillin.

But as I have said, if you can obtain advice from a Vet that would be better than any advice we can give xx

Ruthyjones89 said:

Hi everyone,

As many may know I am really struggling with injecting honey, personally I hate doing it & every time I have, it's gone wrong!!!

A vets up the road from me have kindly been helping & doing it each evening for me. However they are closed over the weekend & ive just tried now & again it's gone wrong. I know this is not ideal but do you think it's okay if I leave it out for tonight & make sure I find another vet to help me out tomorrow?

Just want people's thoughts, she is on daily pencilin injections, and had one tomorrow evening & I'll make sure someone does it tomorrow, but do you think she'll be okay for tonight? If not, it might be a case of driving all the way to Swindon which is only going to stress her out even more!

Please help Xx

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No, don't drive her to Swindon! She will be absolutely fine to miss one dose.

I completely understand how difficult it is to give injections if you've not done it before, or not a lot. Is there anyone living nearby you from RU that can pop over and help? I would gladly do that for you if I lived closer :wave:

I think you are amazing Ruth

Hi Ruth

I'm really sorry I don't know the answer to your specific question about missing a day. However is it the same thing that keeps going wrong when you try and do it yourself? If so we may be able to help you avoid it. I know I've had occasions in the past when I had to do them for Scrappy and they went wrong. It really knocks your confidence and makes them even harder to do But I did get some really useful tips from people on here and it helped massively. xxx

Hi everyone,

Honestly thank you.. I have spoken to swindon and they agree that 1 dose should be okay, and at least it saves stressing her out. I'm in Newbury if anyone can help, but I have already posted on my Facebook and on a local animal page so hopefully someone will help me out.

Thanks scrappy, I feel like such a stupid idiot but it's twice I've done it and it's exploded! I can't do it again, I'm so scared I'm hurting her or she will ingest some of it. I have watched a couple of videos as well as watching the nurses do it all week. I am using her neck scruff, and placing the injection in. I draw it back and then go to push it all in but it just explodes. I leave it out of the fridge over 1 hour before doing it and even give it a slight shake. We also have the green tips which are larger but I just keep screwing it up! All I can think of is its hitting her skin rather than going in properly but being honest my confidence has completely gone!

Sorry I know it's pathetic but it's just scares the life out of me and all I want to do is make her better xx

Ruthyjones89 said:

Hi everyone,

Honestly thank you.. I have spoken to swindon and they agree that 1 dose should be okay, and at least it saves stressing her out. I'm in Newbury if anyone can help, but I have already posted on my Facebook and on a local animal page so hopefully someone will help me out.

Thanks scrappy, I feel like such a stupid idiot but it's twice I've done it and it's exploded! I can't do it again, I'm so scared I'm hurting her or she will ingest some of it. I have watched a couple of videos as well as watching the nurses do it all week. I am using her neck scruff, and placing the injection in. I draw it back and then go to push it all in but it just explodes. I leave it out of the fridge over 1 hour before doing it and even give it a slight shake. We also have the green tips which are larger but I just keep screwing it up! All I can think of is its hitting her skin rather than going in properly but being honest my confidence has completely gone!

Sorry I know it's pathetic but it's just scares the life out of me and all I want to do is make her better xx

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Are the injections pre-drawn up into a syringe ?

If so do you put a new needle on the syring before injecting Honey ? If the doses are pre-drawn up the needle on the syringe can get bunged up. So when you push the plunger down to deliver the dose the needle can pop off the end of the syringe. Putting a new needle on before injecting can prevent this. Also, taking the dose out of the fridge about 15 mins before giving it and shaking the syringe a bit can also help.

What gauge needle are you using, or put another way what colour, orange, blue or green ?

Jack's-Jane said:

Are the injections pre-drawn up into a syringe ?

If so do you put a new needle on the syring before injecting Honey ? If the doses are pre-drawn up the needle on the syringe can get bunged up. So when you push the plunger down to deliver the dose the needle can pop off the end of the syringe. Putting a new needle on before injecting can prevent this. Also, taking the dose out of the fridge about 15 mins before giving it and shaking the syringe a bit can also help.

What gauge needle are you using, or put another way what colour, orange, blue or green ?

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Yes, I totally concur with this advice, usually I get it in a wee bottle so that I can shake the bottle and draw it up myself, but when the vets make a mistake and give me the syringes pre-made-up I need to shake the syringe for ages prior to injecting. I also learned this the hard way by having a few explosions of penicillin all over Kermit's back, which took ages to get off.

Thanks so much both,

Basically the syringes are already made up with all having individual needles already attached. Yeah I thought the fridge wouldn't be helping but I have even been taking them out 1 hour before & always give them a shake as I can see the liquid is quite thick. The actual needle tips are green which I'm led to believe are the largest! But yeah it's like it get stucks & then the force just blows it off if that makes sense!

Honestly nothing is easy.. Well thankfully via Facebook I've managed to speak to the head vetinary nurse at our local vets4pets, and she's going to come round tomorrow night to do it! So at least we'll be okay tomorrow & I'll leave her be for tonight!

Thanks so so much though, I'm such a worrier & hate the thought of hurting her & not being able to look after her properly! Xxx

Ruthy - you're using the largest sensible size needle (there are larger but these are more spinal needles and will just cause pain).

I'd see if it would be possible to get more needles from your vets and ask them to show you how to change them in a sterile manor. This will help you greatly, but also ask the VN when she comes round to go through it with you step by step and maybe see if next time you take her to have it done, if they'll let you try to give it and maybe they can give you tips/more guidance that may help build your confidence.

Aww Ruth I can completely understand how you feel However you are most definitely not an idiot, they can malfunction so easily. I once had a run of three days straight where the tip came off as I was injecting Scrappy. It knocked my confidence right down. I was extremely fortunate that there were no incidents with the very first few I did, very much a case of luck rather than judgement! If they'd exploded there is no way on this earth I would have been able to keep trying! You have so much stress and worry to deal with already I think it makes sense to carry on getting the local vet and others to help you out.

Ruthyjones89 said:

Thanks so much both,

Basically the syringes are already made up with all having individual needles already attached. Yeah I thought the fridge wouldn't be helping but I have even been taking them out 1 hour before & always give them a shake as I can see the liquid is quite thick. The actual needle tips are green which I'm led to believe are the largest! But yeah it's like it get stucks & then the force just blows it off if that makes sense!

Honestly nothing is easy.. Well thankfully via Facebook I've managed to speak to the head vetinary nurse at our local vets4pets, and she's going to come round tomorrow night to do it! So at least we'll be okay tomorrow & I'll leave her be for tonight!

Thanks so so much though, I'm such a worrier & hate the thought of hurting her & not being able to look after her properly! Xxx

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It's quite a technique with the needles and syringes I find. It certainly is more difficult if they are pre-drawn up, but if you don't actually pierce through the skin and get into that space between skin and muscle (sorry for the graphic imagery) then the end will pop off. I'm glad you've got help tomorrow

Ruthy, I'm just catching up with all of this. I empathize so very much! Mimzy had respiratory issues when he was young that required Pen-G injections and I was terrible at it. My OH had to do them. When he was a boy, he was used to having to inject his grandfather with insulin-so had experience. But I can tell you it was difficult even for him...we'd either go through to the opposite side of the tent, or it would glop back out because we hadn't gotten it in far enough. That happened enough times and I panicked so much thinking that Mimzy might get it in his mouth (there seems to be no way to get rid of the smell entirely so you think there's still some there on the skin even if you scrub the spots) that I finally gave up and just told them he'd need proper rabbit oral abx from then on.

I had the same issues with sub q fluids. Maybe I am just needle phobic but I hate the idea of jabbing something sharp into one of my animals. I've had a few experiences of my own where I've had someone trying to inject/draw blood on me and they aren't really ready for the job and they've hurt me, so I can only imagine how pants I am in my pet's eyes.
I've watched tons of videos to see if I can pick up any technique...sadly I don't think they've helped.

I am glad you are finding help for this issue. I'm sure Honey will be okay missing the one, but I am also not a vet. Just that I know my own vet has told me before that one dose is not a big deal. Thinking of you and Honey and hoping that things begin to settle for you soon.
(((((((((((((((((((((Huge hugs)))))))))))))))))) xxxxx

I also don't find it easy to inject Penicillin into one of my rabbits. I think I would find it easier to inject it into someone else's rabbit for two reasons, one that I wouldn't be as emotionally attached to the rabbit , whilst still wanting just as much to do it right of course, and two that imo rabbits are much more scared and therefore much more docile when someone other than the owner medicates them. It looks so simple when a nurse or vet does it, although I have seen it clog up (this is my problem usually) for a vet.

I also find that my rabbits hate critical care if I give it to them and it goes everywhere. I find it much easier to give medicine of any sort than critical care :lol:

So don't think that you are the only one who struggles with this :thumb: