Penicillin help!

Morning everyone

My first post and I'm already asking for help! My new rescue bun Molly has been diagnosed with pasteurella and an ear infection since coming home 3 weeks ago, and is halfway through a 4 week course of penicillin injections. Penicillin injections and I do not get on - sometimes they go absolutely perfectly and I feel like a pro, while other time the stuff goes every blimmin way other than IN the bunny. Last night I managed to deposit a large glob of penicillin on her back where I'd not got the needle in properly. We drew a fresh needle and the second go went in, and we wiped off the excess penicillin from her fur with a damp tissue. Later on in the evening I noticed that the fur in that area had dried into hard spikes where I'd obviously not caught all of the penicillin from her fur, and made a mental note to wash her fur again later. It was so high up her back that I didn't think it was any threat to her. A few minutes later to my absolute horror, I saw that she'd managed to reach round and clean herself on that exact spot - the fur was damp from where she'd licked it. We immediately jumped on her with loads of cotton wool and warm water to thoroughly clean her up, but I'm so worried about the harm that it's potentially caused and am kicking myself for not cleaning her the second I noticed that there was still some residue left over. There couldn't have been much there, but I know how harmful it can be when ingested.

She seemed perfectly fine this morning, ate her breakfast with no worries and her litter tray was perfect.

I know lots of us have struggled with penicillin jabs; has anyone else experienced the same and was your bunny ok?

It does get easier with practice. Take your time with it and double check each stage, or talk yourself through it. I imagined the vet nurse telling me how to do it each time until it became second nature. Even then, you have to watch what you are doing as it is easy to put the needle straight out the other side by being a bit over confident. Even vets don't get it right every time. I've had penicillin squirted in my face when the needle and syringe separated as the plunger was pressed. The vet was ready to call an ambulance if I was allergic to it.

Using a fresh sharp needle to inject also makes a difference. What colour are you using? A wider bore may help.

You did the right thing in cleaning up the 'spillage' as soon as you noticed. Just keep an eye on her poo to make sure everything is normal for a day or two. Penicillin taken orally can destroy the normal gut organisms in rabbits - which is why it is injected. Contact your vet if you are worried. I think I would be making sure she had lots of fibre (grass / hay) to keep the guts working and push things through.

You are doing a good job and it's probably a lot less stress than taking her to the vet every day. I hope she gets better quickly.

Hi Shimmer, thanks so much for replying. It's so frustrating as sometimes I do it perfectly and others I just can't get it right for the life of me! And all the while poor Molly is being constantly prodded and poked.

We always use a fresh needle every time - I think the plastic base is blue?

Thankfully Molly loves her fibre and ate loads of hay yesterday evening into this morning. I'm keeping a very close eye on her at the moment anyway since she's being treated, any by the sounds of it the reaction to ingested penicillin would be quite obvious by the contents of her litter tray so I'll just have to keep checking.

Shimmer said:

It does get easier with practice. Take your time with it and double check each stage, or talk yourself through it. I imagined the vet nurse telling me how to do it each time until it became second nature. Even then, you have to watch what you are doing as it is easy to put the needle straight out the other side by being a bit over confident. Even vets don't get it right every time. I've had penicillin squirted in my face when the needle and syringe separated as the plunger was pressed. The vet was ready to call an ambulance if I was allergic to it.

Using a fresh sharp needle to inject also makes a difference. What colour are you using? A wider bore may help.

You did the right thing in cleaning up the 'spillage' as soon as you noticed. Just keep an eye on her poo to make sure everything is normal for a day or two. Penicillin taken orally can destroy the normal gut organisms in rabbits - which is why it is injected. Contact your vet if you are worried. I think I would be making sure she had lots of fibre (grass / hay) to keep the guts working and push things through.

You are doing a good job and it's probably a lot less stress than taking her to the vet every day. I hope she gets better quickly.

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I would agree with all of this. I'm in the middle of a few weeks of giving Peniciliin injections to my rabbit and so understand the issues. It's not the first time I've had to do this, but I have found that this time it's all gone so much better. I also use a different needle to draw the med into the syringe, to that which I use to inject. I also hold the needle onto the syringe once I'm sure that the needle has pierced the skin.

I would also make sure that your rabbit has lots of fibre to keep the guts working well and obviously keep a close watch on output.

Thanks, Omi. Thankfully Molly is *big* into her hay so getting lots of fibre in her isn't a problem, and being injected doesn't seem to have dented her appetite.

When you say that you hold the needle - how does that work? Any tips would be fab as I'm struggling! The only thing I've found so far that definitely helps is to make sure the needle is pointing upward - that the longest point is underneath which seems to make piercing the skin easier. I also pop my finger over the injection site as soon as I withdraw the needle and give it a gentle rub to disperse the penicillin and prevent it from escaping...

HannahB said:

Thanks, Omi. Thankfully Molly is *big* into her hay so getting lots of fibre in her isn't a problem, and being injected doesn't seem to have dented her appetite.

When you say that you hold the needle - how does that work? Any tips would be fab as I'm struggling! The only thing I've found so far that definitely helps is to make sure the needle is pointing upward - that the longest point is underneath which seems to make piercing the skin easier. I also pop my finger over the injection site as soon as I withdraw the needle and give it a gentle rub to disperse the penicillin and prevent it from escaping...

Click to expand...

After you have pushed the needle into the syringe, there is therefore a joining of the two sections. I have the rabbit on the floor between my knees, facing away. I pick up the scruff with my left hand and hold it while I put the needle in with my right. Then once I'm sure I have felt that the needle has pierced the skin, I transfer the hand that was holding the scruff and with it I hold the needle where it goes into the syringe. Previously, I have found that Penicillin has been so cloggy sometimes that it has pushed apart the two sections whilst I have been injecting.

I also take the Penicillin out of the fridge to warm it up before I use it to inject.

I have just done my rabbit and looked at the needle size. I use two green needles (21g) one for drawing up and one for injecting and the rabbit does not flinch. The blue ones are a finer gauge I think.

Omi said:

After you have pushed the needle into the syringe, there is therefore a joining of the two sections. I have the rabbit on the floor between my knees, facing away. I pick up the scruff with my left hand and hold it while I put the needle in with my right. Then once I'm sure I have felt that the needle has pierced the skin, I transfer the hand that was holding the scruff and with it I hold the needle where it goes into the syringe. Previously, I have found that Penicillin has been so cloggy sometimes that it has pushed apart the two sections whilst I have been injecting.

I also take the Penicillin out of the fridge to warm it up before I use it to inject.

I have just done my rabbit and looked at the needle size. I use two green needles (21g) one for drawing up and one for injecting and the rabbit does not flinch. The blue ones are a finer gauge I think.

Click to expand...

Welcome to the Forum Hannah :wave:

I always use a green one for drawing up the meds, and change to a blue one to inject. It's finer, and so less of a hole for the meds to run out of once injected, if that makes sense.

A gentle massage over the injected area also helps to disperse the meds, as you're already doing

I always use blue ones, was given green ones initially by the vets but had loads of trouble, ordered blue ones online and got on much better. Also I was told not to keep the penicillin (Streptacare) in the fridge (and I asked specifically on a couple of occasions) and never had a problem with clogging. Would give it a good shake as well.

I would have the rabbit (I say rabbit cos have had to give penicillin to three of mine!) in front of me longways, so head by the left hand and bum by the right. I pull up a tent of skin with my left and right hand and then hold that with my left hand and with my index finger in the tent and then put the needle in by my index finger and inject and remove the needle while holding the fur up still. Then release the 'tent' and massage a little.

I found it easiest to do it on the floor and kneel next to them while they ate something, that way I wouldn't have to hold them as well.

Reading all the responses I don't think we've helped you very much, as we all have our own methods, some of which are contradictory. It might just be that as each of us have become more experienced, whatever method/size of needle we've used at the time seems to be the right one for us.

I hope that you find a way for the injections to go well for Molly, I also hope that she responds well to the treatment.

Gah, I feel your pain as I hate the stuff too. I always found that a jolly good shake, draw up with one needle and then immediately replace with a fresh needle to inject. It will either go in first time or it'll clog. Even my vet said some batches seem to inject better than others so you're doing well with the successful ones! Stay calm - you're doing OK.