Good news! The drug Hans needs arrived yesterday (thanks for all the good vibes, everyone.. I’m sure it helped us find the drug must sooner than anticipated!).
So off we went to the vet. Hans took his jab without flinching, what a man! I received a crash course from the vet on Jabbing Bunnies 101 and thought it seemed pretty easy.
Turns out I thought wrong. I didn’t do a very good job at giving Hans his jab today.
I had trouble getting hold of enough skin to pull up and away from Hans’ body, before injecting him. It was better after I tried a different site. The needle pierced his skin fairly easily and I was pushing the drug in slowly when suddenly there was resistance. The plunger wouldn’t move any further. Pulled the syringe out of Hans and tried to depress the plunger, which took a lot of force. Felt like the needle was blocked. When the plunger finally moved, the drug shot all over the table. Stuck the needle in Hans again to give him the rest of the dose. Again the plunger wouldn’t budge. Again it seemed as though the needle was blocked. Don’t know how or why..
Poor Hans. We decided he had had enough for the night and put the syringe aside.
Hans stayed still throughout the whole time. We even heard him ‘tooth-purring’.. how could that have been enjoyable for him? He purred yesterday at the vet’s, too. Funny bunny, but I’m relieved I didn’t inflict any pain on him.
I hope I get things right the next time, which will be tomorrow. Hans is getting a daily jab for the first 3 days, then every other day.
After my lousy injection attempt, Hans spent some time exploring our study table. He has never been to this part of the apartment before. The manga which Hans’ ‘dad’ was reading caught his attention:
Hans immediately put into action the kung-fu moves he just learnt from the manga:
He’s probably planning on using those moves against me when I try to jab him tomorrow!
Wow, what an ordeal! Hans is taking it like a prince. Maybe he understands this is all in his best interest, somehow?
Could the problems you experienced today be due to a faulty syringe?
Hans is tiny (in comparison to the laptop)!
I’m glad to hear that Hans is on his way to recovery.
But it must be really scary having to administer the shot to Hans! Give him cuddles for doing staying still & doing really well 🙂
I’m cringing over here at what he’s going through. Brave bunny! You may end up having to get the vet to do it. I’ve never had good luck with giving bunny meds of any kind at home.
Hans is such a sweetie. Give him kisses for me!
I am so happy for Hans,
I hope the medicines are doing his work 🙂
He looks so sweet with the pink towel,
I send you a hug my sweetie ….
Kareltje =^.^=
Awww….Hans looks so sweet in his pink blankie:) When you give his shot tomorrow, make sure your needle is in far enough to go through the skin, I can’t say for sure, but sounds like maybe your getting it caught up in the skin? Good luck and BIG HUGS to Hans for being so brave!!!!
Aww, poor Hans! I had to give Patch shots when we first got him as well because of a parasite he picked up while living on the streets:) I think it was more traumatic for me than it was for him. He barely noticed! At least you only have to do it a few times! Hang in there, it will be over soon!
I’ve been waiting to hear how Hans is doing (I keep wanting to call him Hansy but he’s your bun and I wouldn’t presume) and although the start is a mixed result I know you’ll work things out. I’m glad to hear he’s being cooperative, that makes such a difference. Good work!
Oh, gosh, Hans is such a sport and now he is a martial artist too. Do you have extra syringes? Sounds like maybe you have defective one…..I seem to remember having to be sure that a little would come out of the tip (just like they do on TV LOL) before doing the big jab into the bunny, I wonder if that somehow gets things going and avoids blockages????? Good Luck, this will get better, I think.
Wow…first jab ordeal…… its not easy to jab a human and what more a rabbit….
he will be fine….hopefully this works for him….
the second photo as though like – ohh not again….
let him rest a lot..
get well Hans..you will be fine…..
Oh thank goodness the medicine got there! Oh how awful for you with the whole needle thing! I’m such a scardey of needles. I would do it though for the fuzzy ones and then I would have to have a glass of wine!!!
Sending more good vibes your way. Such an incredibly brave boy he is. So precious.
bunny hugs,
shell
OMG hans is such a good good boy! kisses for the brave trooper!
he looks so cute standing on the notebook! can i bunnynap him? LOL!!!
What happened to us often is that the rubber syringe seal just gets hard and sticks to the inside. We would first suck up some hot water and squirt it out a few times to be sure the plunger was moving well. Bunny Lady also got a LOT of syringes and needles so we did not have to mess with a bad one for long. We did our Bluie every day for months. It never seemed to bother him unless the needle got too far in and poked his “meat”! Rarely. Poking a bunny makes snuggling a bunny even more special!
I’ve been thinking about it, and I may have had problems pushing the drug in because of its thickness. I diluted it with some sterile saline solution equal to the amount of antibiotic. I’ll dilute it even more tonight and see how that works. The vet gave us a whole bunch of syringe and needles to mess with.
PJ, feel free to call him Hansy. That’s what I call him too, along with a bunch of other names, lol!
Hansy? hahaa dont la….. he is a male – Hans
my case different – Dash…became Dashy.. ahem.. you know why ..dont want to elaborate…
Wow – he is being such a good boy. Fiona would have eaten me by this point
Good to know about the progress..I’ll be kung-fu-ing you too if I had to go through it again….yep, all those good vibes did do him some good…..take care Hans 😛
I always forget if teeth purring is good or bad, I’m glad its good. Hef was just doing it the other day while he sat on my lap out on the deck.
OMGoodness! Hans looked so sad in that last photo wrapped in his blanket! I’d be sad too having to get shots like that though! Hang in there Hans, get better real quick!
Go Hans go to recovery…!!!
I dont read manga.. but i have no idea where Shiro learnt how to kungfu!
You said it best — What a man! Small though he may be, he’s one brave bun! (And he looks adorable wrapped in that pink towel!) Good luck with future jabs.
brave kungfu Hans! My partner is an expert on injecting bunnies but i just can’t do it….
Well… I too had my share in giving antibiotic injections to buns, first with Miss Eve, then Hugo. My vet told me (and made me practice in front of her, first with the antibiotic then with sterile solution) that the trick was to stay relaxed, and to “pinch” gently a large part of the skin on the back just over the shoulderblades. If you get enough – and it won’t bother the bun a bit – it should be easy to create a “tent” when the skin is pinched high, and in this tent you should be able to easily put a finger in. This is where the needle is going to go in… stick it in, then pull the plunger back a bit, to see if you have hit a blood vessel… this is when you see red coming up the siringe. If it is the case, try again until no blood is pulled out, and then press the plunger in.
I must say that I didn’t have to prepare the injections myself – my vet mixed the antibiotic with the saline solution in the practice and “loaded” the siringes for me, which I then took home and kept in the fridge.
One word of warning: if you ask your vet to do so, do not forget to take out of the fridge the siringe 10 min before you give Hans the injection, and – very important – shake it well before administering, so that the suspension mix well with the saline solution. This was a mistake I did and caused the siringe to block like in your case….worst case scenario, once it “exploded”, i.e. the bit with the needle came off and the antibiotic went all over the fur, which I had to wash out quickly before the bun started licking it off, which would have been very dangerous!
Good luck and more healing vibes to Hans…he is so sweet and very brave! x x x
Good jobs Hans! I wouldn’t have sat still at all, lol! Keep getting better Hans!! 🙂
How’s Hans doing now? Hope the jabs have gotten easier for you to do.
Hans is doing alright, the abscess doesn’t seem to bother him. He’s going about all his bunny business as normal as ever. The jab last night went quite well, it was over in less than a minute! 😀
Hans looks so sweet 😉 LOL about the kung fu moves! I hope this medicine does the trick!
p.s. Love the new furry butt in the new banner!
poor hans! i see he has passed on. such a darling bun. we made a video about our bunny savannah. she died of instestinal stasis not long after. we had found her in our yard, she had apparently been dumped. she was already sick when we found her. we didn’t know anything about bunny care, but we tried very hard to take care of her. now we know a lot more and would have handled it differently. my 7 year old made a video about bunny care:
it features savannah. we have a new bunny now, simon, and we know a lot more about how to care for him. rip hans.
Thanks for sharing your experience.