Since Simone gets sub-cutaneous fluids every day, I thought that it would be a good idea to show how this is done. Of course, there are several demonstrations of this procedure on the web, e.g. http://www.fabcats.org/owners/kidney/subcutaneous/info.html.
When my vet's assistant showed me how to administer fluids, they used a demo cat that lived at the clinic. They assured that the cat would not mind, and, as far as I could tell, it was rather unfazed by the procedure. I thought to myself that I hoped that the cat didn't have to earn its keep that way. After the demo, I thought, "Yeah, I can do this. Looks easy." When I tried it on Simone, the poor kitty had to endure my clumsiness and ineptitude, and she got overly poked the first few times. Eventually, with continued practice, I got the hang of it, but there were times when the needle hit a muscle, poked through a fold a skin, or drew blood and I humbly asked Simone's forgiveness. Occasionally, for some reason, I could not get a good insertion even after 3 tries, and I would give up until the next day. The point is that, even after learning the technique of sub-Q injections, there are going to be some bad days. Just hang in there. Don't beat yourself up. It will be better the next day. Fortunately, I was blessed with an easy-going cat, so Simone rarely made a fuzz during my bungling times. She is very forgiving.
The first part of administering sub-Q fluids is to prepare the bag and delivery pack. I was hoping that the above video would clearly show this procedure, but it was a shoddy shooting job and the object of interest is sometimes off camera. So, I will also verbally describe the procedure with some photographic illustrations. As stated in an earlier blog, I use Lactated Ringers Solution (1 liter) and the delivery kit from Drs. Foster & Smith.
#1: Rip open the outer bag containing the fluids bag and remove it.
#2: Invert the fluids bag and remove the white, plastic plug.
#3: Rip open the bag containing the delivery kit.
#4: Close the thumb-wheel valve by turning the wheel towards the end of the delivery tube.
#5: Remove the protective cover from the plastic spike at the upper end of the delivery tube.
#6: Insert the spike into the bottom of the fluids bag.
#7: Lift the fluids bag upright (no fluid should flow), and squeeze the clear, plastic tube until it half fills with fluid.
#8: Hang the bag with the delivery tube in a convenient location for administering fluids.
#9: Remove the cap at the end of the delivery tube and attach a sterile syringe.
That's it feline fanciers. In the next post, I'll publish part 2 of hydration. Purr on cat lovers!
"A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not." (Ernest Hemingway)
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