At-Home Sub Q Fluids

Cy came home yesterday a happy, energetic pup. Today… well, he’s kind of mad at me.

He responded well to his IV treatment. His levels are much lower than his previous test. Our next battle is to maintain his levels or (hopefully) lower them some more. He is still in stage 3, but closer to the middle rather than the end range. He’s been prescribed 150 ml of subcutaneous fluids (IV fluid under his skin) a day for the next seven days. Then we are to head back into the vet to retest and remeasure his blood levels.

While normally, Dan, who is a paramedic, would be best to administer his fluids, he’s out of town. So, I attempted to give him fluids myself. Dr. J (not his real name) was kind enough to let me record a demonstration of how to do this, but I definitely choked. There were some minor details that I may have forgotten like…

• Which valves to place the needle vs the bag

• How to get bubbles out of the line

• Slowly let the fluid flow rather than just opening the line (which was painful for Cy — he yelped pretty loudly)

But here’s what happened…

Cy is pretty mad at me today. We went to training and, while doing all his tricks on commend for the trainer, he just ignored me.

I definitely hurt him and did not know what I was doing. Dan is giving me a crash course when he gets home.