Help with snake injections

[moespeaking]

Ive been giving my bp shots for the last two weeks 5 so far and have another 5 to giver her. The first five i saw no air bubbles in so i let em be. The one today i noticed an air bubble so tried to get it out and in the process waisted half of the injection. When I was at the vet I asked him if i had to worry about air bubbles and he said no. I figured because the shots goes into muscle and not into a vein. Hes a very reputable vet so I want to believe him that I dont have to worry about the air bubble. I mean is there a chance I could hit the wrong spot and kill my snake? is there a way to get rid of the bubble without touching the plunger on the needle? any input would defintely help me out, thanks.

[bigballs]

dont worry about tiny air bubbles but if you have a big air gap in the syringe then thats a different story...

[minotaur]

As a med student who just learned about this I feel somewhat qualified to answer, even though the anatomy of the subject receiving the injection is a little different. It is true that tiny air bubbles, if injected into a vein could cause an air embolism. Muscular injections do not suffer from this problem. The key is to make sure you havent mistakenly injected into a vein. After inserting the needle draw back GENTLY on the plunger. If you see blood sucked back into the syringe just reposition and try again. If there is no blood after pulling back, you are okay to inject the small air bubbles. Hope that helps.

[slartibartfast]

Hold the syringe with needle pointing up at the ceiling, and flick it repeatedly with your fingernail. The bubbles will migrate up to the hub of the needle, and can be expressed before administering the shot.

[moespeaking]

slartibartfast, what do you mean when you see the bubbles can be expressed before administering the shot. Do you mean by pushing slightly on the plunger, If so the amount of medication is so small that even if you push it ever so slightly you lose half of it. If not could you please explain more.

[slartibartfast]

What volume of liquid are we talking about here?

[minotaur]

Yeah, and what size syringe?

[moespeaking]

.06cc of ambocin or something like that its hard to read the hand writing. The needles say: single use only for u-100 insulin made my Terumo the total capacity says 1/2cc 50 units. I dont have the steadiest hand so when I push on the plunger a little, its really more pressure then I would like to apply.

[slartibartfast]

That is really tiny. I wouldn't worry about air bubbles that small.

[moespeaking]

Its marked at 6 out of the 50 on the syringe. On the sheet he gave me he wrote .06cc, but maybe its .6 cc?