She's Got Me Under Her Skin

I gave Cammie her first home-based dose of subcutaneous fluids on Friday. I noticed right away the difference between my own effort and those on YouTube videos featuring veterinary surgeons with thirty years’ experience , a docile cat and an assistant… I found greater help in a short video made by a couple of friends, colleagues in the rescue-group to which I belong.

Cammie never likes being picked up. That in itself is a clue to her that she will be receiving something she dislikes. I had prepared everything beforehand, of course, choosing to use the syringe-method, rather than delivery direct from the bag of fluids. I placed the princess on the bed, on which a towel had been spread. As soon as I started to pinch the skin near her shoulder blades, preparatory to insertion of the needle, she started screaming. She knew what was about to happen, and she didn’t care for the process at home with me any more than she did for it at a hospital with strangers. (I’m glad she didn’t use those claws on me…)

I did manage to put the needle in place, though I wondered the whole time if it was correctly inserted. I feared putting it into her muscles, though I don’t think that happened. If that had occurred, I believe I probably would have had a much more difficult time pushing the needle in. As it was, I was not sure it had even punctured the skin, not until I started pushing the plunger down on the syringe: no fluid leaked out on to Cammie’s fur or the towel, so it must have been going somewhere.

Cammie did not stop screaming, howling, growling and hissing the whole time, which did not reassure me that I was doing it right. But I think the feeling of the needle, and the expansion of the ‘bubble’ with its fluid, must have made her very uncomfortable. Holding her with one hand, I grasped the syringe with the other and pushed it backward against my knee, forcing the plunger very slowly forward.

I managed to put fifty milliliters of fluid into her. This is not a great amount: the doctor recommended twice to thrice that amount. However, she also stated that, at this time, Cammie need not have fluids more than once every few weeks. I have decided to try this process once a week. I don’t know if this will produce the same effects as what would be accomplished the doctor’s way, since the goal is not merely to provide fluids, but to flush out urea; the larger amounts, once a month, may be more beneficial than the smaller, once a week. I will watch Cammie and judge her behaviour to help me decide.

In truth, yesterday’s event was a test. I was able to put some fluids into my Siamese girl; in that, the test was successful. I will know better how to achieve this the next time, how to hold Cammie, how to position the syringe, etc. I did leave her with a little lump of fluids under the skin, so that part worked. And she forgave me, eventually, so that part worked, too.