Withdraw the needle

Use a finger or thumb

to check for wetness after injection

Second Revision, Friday, 23 January 2009; 20:19

Check the area of injection with finger or thumb

If you find much wetness, you might have injected right through the tent, and out the other side. I have done that myself, once or twice.

So far, I have been fortunate enough not to inject the finger of my skin-holding hand! You might not be so lucky, but it won't take you long to learn to place the injection well.

Never Repeat an Injection!

Veterinarians say, DO NOT REPEAT AN INJECTION!

Once you have slid the needle into the skin at all, you have no way to know just how much insulin arrived at its destination, and how much missed by coming out the other side, or otherwise turning into runaway insulin.

Your dog will not die from missing an injection. But it very well could die, or at least, experience a hypoglycemic episode, from getting too much insulin. This is why veterinarians say not to repeat, if the injection went wrong somewhere. Of course, if there was an error, it was the injection, not you.

So merely wait till the next regular injection time, if something went amiss with the procedure.

Rare exception: when you may repeat injection

I encountered a very rare exception one evening, when I started to give Kumbi his shot, but somehow, it didn't go! Instead, I came up with syringe-in-hand - the needle heavily bent - with the entire insulin dose remaining in the syringe.

Here you can see the result!

I checked FOUR times, using a magnifying glass, just to make absolutely sure I was not mistaken. Well, no mistake about it; the entire insulin dose remained in the syringe. So, I prepared and gave a second injection. Then I took pictures of the syringe with the bent needle and the insulin still inside.

Return to Syringes for Kumbi

We do have one job still to do

We have one more job to do; though it may be a token one for you, it is important to the dog, so let's do it.

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The Great Outside