Tips on giving shots

[oscarsmom]

My dog is on an injectable antibiotic called Amikacin. The first few times he didn't seem to mind, but now he like runs for his life and yelps and squirms when I try to give him his shot. It is getting increasingly difficult to give him his shot every day, but he needs them. He even tries to bite me when the needle is out and I'm scared I will poke him in the eye or something. My vet said to let him chew on peanut butter or cream cheese to disctract him, but that and numerous treats and toys don't work. Has anyone experienced this and overcome it?

 

[Cbrugs]

I give Jax monthly injections. I assume you are giving in the scruff of his neck? I always have someone in front of him giving treats so he doesn't even know the injection is coming. I don't know if I would be able to do it if it was just myself. Do you have someone that can help distract him?

 

[Honeys Owners]

My dog is on an injectable antibiotic called Amikacin. The first few times he didn't seem to mind, but now he like runs for his life and yelps and squirms when I try to give him his shot. It is getting increasingly difficult to give him his shot every day, but he needs them. He even tries to bite me when the needle is out and I'm scared I will poke him in the eye or something. My vet said to let him chew on peanut butter or cream cheese to disctract him, but that and numerous treats and toys don't work. Has anyone experienced this and overcome it?

Amikacin is really hard on kidneys, and usually used for really resistant infections. Does he really need that one? I would ask to see the antibiotic susceptibility printout from lab to see what else the bacteria is sensitive to. Most vets seem to use oral amoxicillin/clavulanic acid most of the time.

 

[oscarsmom]

He actually had to have a trachael wash done because he wasn't responding to the antibiotics he was on. The vet said he needs to amikacin, but if we did further tests they could try to figure out another possible antibiotic. I had already dropped over $4k on the previous procedure and decided to try this one out before spending more money on expensive tests. He is noticeably better so I guess it's working. I take his urine in for testing every 3 days and so far no issues.

All I have to say is thank goodness for pet insurance. I use Healthy Paws and think they are fantastic, in case anyone was looking for a carrier.

Also, I do have my boyfriend helping most days. Last night, he kind of held him in the air so his legs couldn't push off of anything. It was both very cute and sad to see him kicking his legs trying to escape. He didn't yelp this time, but was still scared. Needless to say, he got tons of treats and belly rubs the rest of the night.

 

[Honeys Owners]

If he is on amikacin for only a week he should be fine. But if on more than a week, I would definitely try to switch him to a different antibiotic, because it's much more common at that point to run into kidney failure and loss of hearing and loss of balance. You will also need a trough ( pre dose ) drug level done at that point to make sure the drug hasn't accumulated to toxic levels. If the lab has the original culture your vet could have requested them to do additional sensitivities without having to obtain an additional specimen.