Advice on injecting locusts with Baytril please!

[lizard120371]

Karma has an infected casque and my vet has advised me to inject a locust with 0.1ml Baytril for five days. Mmmm easier said than done! First I managed to slice my finger on the needle, man they are sharp! Then as I hand fed Karma his dosed up locust he chomped on my finger, really hard I might add!! Blood everywhere - mine not Karmas' - lol. The hand feeding is not a problem as I always feed him this way as his tongue doesn't shoot out that far. I think it was just his revenge for me taking him to the vets earlier, ha ha. However I would welcome any advice on injecting the locusts

 

[Miss Lily]

I have had to do this many times with my two chams. Get the meds drawn up into the syringe first, then hold the locust with tweezers ( I found this keeps them from wriggling away) and inject between the segments on the underside. I usually tried to inject below where the legs are so as not to kill them instantly by piercing some major organ, lol!

 

[lizard120371]

Thanks for the advice, I just stuck it into it's back. Hopefully I won't be so clumsy next time and I will definately inject the underside and take the cap of the needle off before catching the locust. The needle has already been drawn up by the vet, one less thing to cock up I spose!

 

[HolyToledo]

Have you ever tried feeding soft bodied worms? Wax worms, Horn worms, Butterworms and the like? They are soooooo much easier to use as med-bugs. Way easier to hold on to while injecting them. That is how my vet had me giving meds.

And, don't forget to make sure to offer all the extra water you can. Baytril sometimes makes them not want to eat or drink as much as they normally would?

 

[lizard120371]

Thanks for the advice. My second attempt was much more successful. Locust successfully injected and Karma ate the lot. Might get him some waxworms as a treat tomorrow though.

 

[HolyToledo]

I also use the wax worms as a sneaky way to give more water. I would fill one waxie with the med and then a few throughout the day, I turned into little water balloons and fed him those. Every little bit of hydration helps, right?

 

[Bernie]

Does anyone have any tips for injecting silkworms?

When I try, their body fluids seem to leak out of the hole during and after injecting.

 

[pssh]

I don't like injecting soft bodied worms (Sometimes hornworms work, but those are illegal in the UK.) Like you stated, the fluids just leak out everywhere and get nasty. I find a roach works well. They have a lot of room to expand and if you don't feed them for a few hours they can hold a LOT of water/meds. Just make sure the rest of them are gutloaded.

 

[HolyToledo]

I never tried silkworms. But with the waxies, if you poke the needle in and run it along the skin a bit and then in toward the guts, I had better luck in stuff not leaking back out. Unless you get it right in the worms stomach and the juice comes right out their mouth.