# Have you ever given an injection to a mouse/other rodent?



## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

About a month ago, I had some hopper escapees. Yesterday, I recovered one of them. She was pretty sick and dehydrated, but I figure it couldn't hurt to try to save her. So the first thing I did was whip out my bag of D5NS (Dextrose 5%, Normal Saline 0.9%) and an insulin syringe and give her a sub-q injection. She was still pretty lively, so I figure she had a pretty good chance if she could only get some food and fluids into her. She was even drinking some spilled fluid, so she at least wants to live.

Anyway, as I was doing this, it occurred to me to wonder if anyone here has ever given injections to their mice/rats/whatever they have. If you have, do you prefer the belly or scruff site? How much fluids do you give your animal?

Or does giving an injection to a mouse feel like too much work for a sick animal? Would you rather cull than go through the hassle?

I do have experience with injections. I'm going to school to be a vet tech, and we did cover how to inject small animals in class. I have also done pigs, sheep, cats, dogs and horses. I give my own vaccinations at home. So I am comfortable with handling syringes, and giving shots to all size animals.

Looking forward to your answers!


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## thammy24 (Dec 20, 2012)

I am able to fill and give syringes to large animals. I've never given any to anything smaller than livestock though lol.


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

Same thing, except smaller. By a lot. :lol:

Update: My little girl is doing a lot better! She's still really small for her age, but she's much more lively. She cleaned herself up and is looking much better now. In fact, she's feeling so good that when I opened the cage to check on her, she jumped out! :roll: Ten minutes of crawling on my hands and knees later, I caught her (again) and put her back in the cage. Watch out folks, she's a lively one!

I wonder if she would have gotten better on her own, with access to food and water, or if me giving a sub-q injection of D5NS helped save her life. She was definitely in a death-row state when I found her. Though she was still jumping like a hopper when I found her, she was in that state where if you roll her onto her back, she doesn't try to get up again. To me that usually signals the point of no return. But I figured I'll try anyway, since she is my oldest female merle. I half expected this morning to find her dead in her cage. Instead, well you know what happened. :lol:

There comes a point when a body is so starved and dehydrated, that the animal (not just mice, but humans or any other type of living creature too) simply cannot take in enough resources to save itself. That is when we pull out the things like IV fluids to help sustain them. I work in a human hospital, so I see really sick people all the time. Working in a hospital (not a nurse) has also probably helped me to be more comfortable with the idea of extra interventions.

Was my little girl that far along? Or would she have gotten better without me? I'll probably never know, but at least I can look at this little dear and feel better that she feels better.


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## thammy24 (Dec 20, 2012)

aawww  I'm glad she's feeling so much better . it totally could have saved her life.


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