Giving the puppy a shot

jotate

We have to give our dog a shot and we've never really done it before. We're supposed to do it in the loose skin around her neck. The problem is that as soon as the needle is in, she starts to flip out and we can't actually push the stuff in.

Is there a trick to making this easier or do we just have to hold her tight and do it as fast as possible?

Rhaka

Any patch of loose skin should do. My dog has a nice habit of leaning back with his head when I go for his neck skin, bending the needle, so generally I just try and find a nice patch on his side. Keep the dog in your lap and somewhat still, find the patch of skin you want to use, grasp it between your fingers on one hand and push the needle in with the other.

My dog usually jumps up at this point, just calmly push him back down into your lap. If the needle isn't in too far generally he calms down. At this point grab the needle, pull back a tiny bit, then inject all of the medicine as quickly as possible and extract the needle. The dog won't like it but it's over really soon, which means there's less of a chance of them jumping up and fucking up the shot.

Sometimes my dog doesn't mind the needle or the following shot at all, so your mileage may vary depending on your dog's mood/patch of skin you pick.

nakirush

I'm not sure about dogs, but when you do it on a horse you slap the area first so they don't feel the needle go in.

Sam

couldn't a vet do this? I could see constant poking attempts having an effect on tempermant if it's a puppy

LadyM

Try not to get too nervous ahead of time or the puppy will sense it and be even more freaked out. If you can act like you're giving the puppy an awesome treat, the puppy might buy it. (With my dog, I would say, "Oh BOY, we're going to see the VET!!! Isn't that fun?!?!?" and she became convinced that, yes, it WAS fun to go to the place where people poke with needles and put thermometers up butts. So much fun!!) If you have a second person around, try distracting the puppy with a yummy treat.

mts

some dogs just take it better than others. if you pre squeeze the scruff area before you actually give him the shot, it sometimes helps as sometimes grabbing the scruff can freak him out as well.

just try to be as quick as you can once the needle goes in,