Feeding after penicillin injection

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Tash88

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My horse has an infection (cellulitis) around his hock and I have to inject him with penicillin every afternoon. He's coming in at night now, is it okay to give him his feed straight after the injection or do I have to wait a while? Forgot to ask the vet this yesterday as he had to be sedated and so he couldn't eat for an hour after that anyway.

Thanks in advance.
 
Thanks for the replies, I would feed at the same time, but he has to have it in his neck and so his neck needs to be still so that the needle doesn't bend! Quite nervous about doing it on my own today after the vet taught me yesterday - wish me luck!
 
Feeding's fine. He was only not allowed to eat because of the sedation and risk of choking etc. :)

I always try and inject in the bum if I can as mine have a bigger 'area' there...though possibly not on a kicker!
 
I am sure your vet warned you, but just in case I wanted to let you know about the reaction you sometimes get to penicillin. If you nick a vein by accident the procaine carrier can go into the brain. It is like a shot of cocaine and the horse goes beserk for a few minutes. There is nothing you can do and they recover quickly but make sure you inject in a safe enclosed area that you can exit quickly if it does happen. It happened to me a few weeks ago and thank goodness I knew what is was as vet had warned me. Still very scary though.
 
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I'm not injecting him on his bum for this as the infection is in his hock and he's in a bit of pain so isn't happy about me being near his back end. I did it this evening and he was pretty good, after three days I think he's getting used to it now.

Hippophilia - yes my vet told me about that but said that he would have a seizure if I injected into a vein. I make sure I pull back a little when the needle is in so that I can check whether blood is coming out or not. Your description has reassured me a bit though, if it does happen at least I know he will be okay after a few minutes.
 
Yes, my girl was grand after about 15 minutes of being walked in hand. I aspirated but I think she must've moved her neck as she was pretty tense. Unfortunately for us she went off her feed the next day so the vet recommended we stop all meds (she's an oldie so we didn't want to her to give her system anything at all hard to handle) - leaving me to get the infection in her wound out with a poultice which has taken forever.
Good luck with the rest of your injections and healing vibes to your boy :)
 
Thank you, I have to inject him until Wednesday then the vet is coming out again and hopefully that will be all. Good luck with your girl as well, sounds like you've had a bit of a rough ride with her.
 
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