This is a bit long of a post but I think the details are important, so I appreciate anyone who takes teh time to read and comment.
my cat was diagnosed with both diabetes and CKD at the beginning of the year. Due to some personal reasons the vet had us start her on 1 3 unit shot of vestulin a day (I believe the needle is a 29 gauge, 1/2" long) for the diabetes and 150 ml of fluid 3 times a week. (I think 18 gauge, also 1/2" long). it's been about a month and this amount of insulin and fluids seems to be working great so far.
at the vet she tolerated the initial shots and my practice shots.And at home started by I giving her the insulin after her morning meal and which resulting in a lot of growling and loud meowing, I attributed this to my own nerves getting to her as well but I always was able to give her the shot. Then the sub Q fluids I would do sometime at night, the first day I did this she completely tolerated it like at the vet but after that first time it became a tooth and nail fight where I struggled to hold her still long enough to administer the fluid. I was able to give her what she needed, but after this first week of needles though she seemed to be scared to be around me because she seemed to associate me with the needles, so she hid all day long for about 4 days only coming out to eat, and when I would take her out of her hiding spots for the needles.
So I took her back to the vet to discuss and they suggested I give her her insulin half way through her meal while she's distracted and then we tried giving her fluid while having her contained in her top opening carrier which worked as it kept her contained without us having to hold her down.
so I went home and have done it this way every since and I've never not been able to give her her needles. But I'm still having problems with her while giving them to her. This is coming from cat that has a bit of an attitude sometimes and would scratch when she's mad, but has never really been a biter until now.
For the insulin, the first two weeks she would growl while eating and sometimes make a move to bite me but never actually did and would resume eating after calming down for a moment. but then after that she seemed to realize she would get the needle mid meal and started to leave her food only literally halfway eaten and then run and hide. I then have to find her, take her out of her hiding space and present the food again. she would resume eating and I'd give her the shot which resulted in the same growling and movements to bite but not actual biting, and she always finishes her food, so it'd been working over all this way. But this past week and a half she has been starting to bite me really hard, multiple times while giving her her insulin every day. I was originally trying to give it in different areas, but now I can only give it to her in her scruff because if I try to give it in her flank or hips she whips around and bites me. The needles always stayed inserted so I've always just been able to scruff her to hold her still and resume injecting the insulin from there but I worry she's making me hurt her with the needle more when she whips around on me (or that she'll pull the needle out and make me have to stick her again, or bend the needle, etc). So now I'm only able to give it to her in the scruff between the shoulders since I can control her more from that position. But I'm still getting bit every day sometimes more than once, so I'm wondering if there's much I can do. I'm confident with sticking her now even though she bites me and i don't think it's my technique (I shoot parallel to the body and I've never not been able to give her the shot on the first stick past the first few times I was giving her the needle, so I don't think it's nerves related anymore) its worth noting that she tries to/does bite me from sticking the needle in, but she also tries to bite me again specifically when I'm pushing the plunger though I make sure to not wiggle the needle when doing this.
As for the fluid administration, now I'm able to give it to her when i put her in the carrier with not too many problems, but she fights me really bad going into the carrier, biting my hands when I'm putting her in, when she didn't ever fight me on that before, this makes sense of course since she now has a negative association with the carrier, but where when we tried it at the vet she laid down in the carrier once we stuck her with the needle, at home she tries to escape the entire time and I think it's stressing her out. She usually hides most of the next day after this. then is fine the second day despite the insulin needles being a bad experience for her in between, then goes back into hiding again the whole day following the next fluid injection. But its less stressful than me trying to hold her down I'm sure. I know the needle is painful and I tried something I saw online which was to freeze the needles to dull the pain, but it doesn't seem to help much. the vet gave me the smaller pink capped needles to try in the beginning in addition to the larger green capped needles, but it doesn't seem to agitate her any less but takes twice as long to administer the fluids so I think the bigger needle is what I'll need to stick with. it doesn't help giving her he evening meal or treats while doing this she ignores them while trying to escape. I have tried this with both the mesh top zipped shut and also leaving the top open but putting my arm across the top when she tries to climb out, neither seems to work any better.
anyways, I'm just hoping maybe someone here has had experience with a cat that fights needles this bad, did it ever get better down the line, like they accepted it, or did it always stay a fight?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/at5zt8/need_advice_for_giving_needs_to_biting_cat/
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