Make a tent in the skin

Tent the skin where you intend to inject

Second Revision, Sunday, 18 January 2009; 08:26

Pinching up skin to make a tent

To make a tent, pinch up skin between your thumb and fingers, as shown in the picture.

Feel your way with the pinched-up skin; you should feel that you have skin at both sides of the "tent." You can pinch quite firmly, without your dog feeling any pain. Do be sensitive to your dog's responses. If your dog complains, let go, and then try again. Usually, though, you can pinch without any complaint.

I usually like to make the "tent" parallel to the spine, lengthwise, but you can also make it perpendicular to the spine, or at an angle. Wherever you "tent" the skin, make it so you won't be injecting immediately over the spine; it's best if the needle tip arrives a couple of centimeters away from the spine.

You can experiment with different locations, in general, staying in the area shown by the "saddle-blankets" in the back and scruff pictures on the previous page.

Once you have the tent made, hold it steady, and you are ready to place the needle of the filled syringe.

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