It's been quite a day of caring for animals.
Zandy remains in the wire kennel in the garage, a.k.a. Chicken Hospital. She still looks ill but perks up dramatically at the site of food: bits of strawberries, tiny tomatoes, my morning oatmeal. I swapped her regular pellets for crumbles and I heard her happily pecking away.
I set up a heater and Zandy gets as close as she can even if it ruffles her feathers. I guess I'll continue providing supportive care and see how things go.
This morning I gave Zeke and Bitsy an Intramuscular (IM) injection. It's the first of seven doses given every 4 days. The medication is called Adequan I.m., it's for arthritis.
I've given many injections to humans - even gave Mama the goat SQ shots - but this was my first IM to a goat. I think I would have been okay if the Vet had not said, "Give it in the neck".
What? The neck? What if I hit a jugular vein ... what if I hit a carotid artery? Where is the jugular, yikes, where is the carotid?
I worried about it for a week.
Since both goats had been on daily aspirin I thought I would wait seven days before giving an intramuscular injection.
Today was day 7.
I was fortunate that it's a very small dose and uses a 1 ml syringe (tiny). Instead of using the 18 gauge needles I had on hand I purchased the smaller 20 g x 1".
During the week of waiting I googled, "How to give a goat IM injection" and got many different answers and diagrams.
The best information for me was found on YouTube. It was posted by DR YEDLA ANAND REDDY ANIMAL DOCTOR, from India. He started his video with terribly sad images of goats with sciatic nerve damage caused by injections in the thigh/rump area.
Instead the Doctor shows you a safer place to inject a goat. Using the scapula bone as the base he draws a triangle above it using his finger.
The video instruction using the scapula as my landmark (versus the vague "in the neck") was exactly what I needed to perform the task competently and quickly. Both goats were busy eating their treats and did not flinch, move, or even stop chewing while I cleaned the area, found the IM site, and gave their injections.
Easy Peasy, one down six more shots to go.
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| Reenactment Photo of Zeke getting his shot |
