IM injections

[mothermucker12]

curious if anyone gives them in the butt?? seems like an easier place then the neck...

[bellboots]

Not in the top of the butt - if it were to abcess, the exit path is all the way thru the rump.

I give IM in the chest - very short exit path if it were to abcess. The neck is my second choice. My vet recomended this.

[WorthTheWait95]

It's also easier to get kicked back there if there is an objection. I always give them in the neck and haven't had an issue :knockwood:.

[LittleblackMorgan]

Just went through 2 rounds of genamicin (once a day x 10 days EACH).
After seeing the bewildered look in my geldings eyes after figuring out what that syringe was, I would MUCH rather get a nip going for the neck than a swift kick with a rear hoof...if the shot was once a month, sure, go for the bumb. Otherwise, I'll stick to the neck, thatyouverymuch.:D

[Seven-up]

Necks don't kick.:winkgrin:

[BuddyRoo]

Any large muscle can be used for IM injections...but your risk of abscess and complications increases in certain places.

If I were having to give many injections per day, I might rotate neck, neck, chest, butt...but I wouldn't go for the butt on a one time deal.

[Beethoven]

Plus the skin on the butt is very thick and not the easiest to get a needle through. With Pennicillin(sp?) injections I do rotate and do the butt. I have someone hold a leg just in case.

[Percheron X]

Only in the semitendinosus...
http://www.horse-vetsupplies-andmore.com/images/injectionbuttock.gif
http://www.horse-vetsupplies-andmore.com/Givinghorseinjections.html

[Jess!]

I just got done with Penn. for five days, the mare grew very wise fast and I could only do butt injections once before she figured it out.

I was switching necks.

I didn't know i could give it in the chest, I never even thought of that. That's a good idea.

[Horsegal984]

We used the chest a lot when we were dealing with a bad strangles outbreak at the barn a few years ago. It's a great location, but beware it will make your horse go from a modest B to a large D overnight ;) Also make sure you detach the needle and put it in first, as they do tend to twich the muslce considerably more when using the pecs. Trying to hold the syringe and needle in place will likely not work, and cause more mucsle soreness than just the needle and beign able to let it go.

Katherine
Vet Tech

[Ajierene]

I only have had to give yearly shots and I do the neck. I give a total of four or five shots. One on one side, one on the other....a week later same deal with the other shots.

I did have to give a mare some penicillin as a precaution after she foaled - still just used the neck and alternated sides. She sometimes bent the needle and I think I had the wrong size, but it wasn't my horse, so I had to use whatever the owners gave me to use. I was in college then and more naive and less likely to say something. I think the needles we used were for IV and I needed a higher gauge for IM.

[Serigraph]

One of my horses I always give it in the neck. The other horse seemed too sensitive when giving in the neck...a little swelling and soreness, so now I give it to him in the butt and it works much better for him. I use this area too:
http://www.horse-vetsupplies-andmore...ionbuttock.gif

[MCarverS]

I saw one case while working at a vet clinic of a bad abscess from the shot being given in the butt, it was enough to put me off and always give IM in the neck.

[Tiffani B]

We have a horse at the barn who abscessed from an injection in the top of the butt and he is unable to use that hind leg very well now due to the massive scar tissue.

If I had to give it in the butt, I'd use the muscles on the back of the rump (quads?). But I usually use the neck. Pecs are a good idea, I'll have to remember that - although my horse hates having his pecs curried or massaged so he may get REALLY angry about a shot there. :eek:

[bellboots]

I had also been taught about giving IM in the back of the butt - quads, or the meaty area above the hock, kind of near the bottom of the tailbone. My vet showed me how to do it, but it's not a "straight in" injection - there is some angle to it. I don't feel like I know the angle well enough to do it myself, but that area is another option with a short exit if it should abcess.

[JenEM]

While I wouldn't do it personally, I have seen a vet do it with a large dose of antibiotics.

[Wayside]

Sometimes I give my draft gelding injections in the rump. Lower portion, as pictured by a pp. He gets an injection of Acetyl-d Glucosamine every other week. It's terrible form, I know, but he's so good about them that I don't even halter him in the field to do them, and sometimes if he's eating I do them in the hind end so he doesn't have to pick his head up. Most of the time he doesn't even stop chewing, and he never flinches or walks away, but talk about appalling horsemanship on my part. Sheesh.

[JB]

If I had to give it in the butt, I'd use the muscles on the back of the rump (quads?).
Hamstring ;) Quadriceps muscles are in the front area.

There are generally 3 areas in each side of the neck triangle to give a shot - high, middle, low. STILL within the triangle - important.

And yes, the chest muscles and the hamstrings are also valid areas.

Weekly or bi-monthly shots really don't need to go outside of the neck, unless there are other issues, or just preference. But if you're giving multiple antibiotic shots multiple times a day, you run out of high/middle/low neck places and they start to get sore. Big horses getting 30cc+ of penicillin twice a day means 4 sticks a day. If there's another IM antibiotic as well, well.... you see where the other areas quickly become viable :)

[Ghazzu]

If I had to give it in the butt, I'd use the muscles on the back of the rump (quads?).

Quads are on the cranial aspect of the leg.
Semimembranosus/semitendinosus are caudal.

[Ghazzu]

One of the few things I will give in the gluteals is penicillin, as abscess formation is relatively unlikely with an antibiotic injection, and, as has been said, one runs out of injection sites pretty quickly with q 12 hour PPG.

[Tiffani B]

Hamstring ;) Quadriceps muscles are in the front area.

Ah yes, thank you. I was having a momentary memory lapse, possibly due to my brain being in overload from seeing my last shoeing bill. :eek: