How to Give a Horse a Shot

Many horse owners don't give their horses shots. They make a trip to the veterinarian's office for any vaccinations or injections that are needed. Sometimes with severe injuries or illness your horse will require daily injections. You will have no choice but to learn how to inject your horse safely without causing further injury. It may seem daunting, but correctly giving a shot is not hard if you take the proper precautions.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Medication
• Syringe or needle
• Halter or lead rope
• Betadine or alcohol

1. Tie the horse securely or have someone hold the horse. The horse may get nervous and jump around when you start to inject the medication.

2. Decide where you will give the injection. Most medicines need to be given in the muscle, not the vein.

3. Choose the neck, the thigh or haunch for the injection site. The neck will be the easiest and the area least likely to cause problems.

4. Clean the injection site with either alcohol or Betadine. Betadine is a scrub used before surgery to clean the site of dirt and debris.

5. Draw the medicine into the syringe while avoiding air bubbles. If you get air bubbles in the syringe, empty the syringe and start over.

6. Insert the needle quickly into the injection site.

7. Pull back on the syringe slightly to see if there is any blood. If there is no blood, slowly inject the medication. If there is blood, take the needle out and insert it again.

8. Take the needle out quickly and straight from the site.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are unsure about where or exactly how to give a shot, have your veterinarian show you when you are at his office. Having someone demonstrate the technique will help you administer future shots.

Resources

• Find vaccines and medication at jeffersequine.com.

[chillygirl64]

on 11/23/2008 Georgiagirl and abc123 are correct. Also, if at all possible, you should avoid tieing your horse while administering injections. Horses who are needle "shy" can pull back and the resulting pressure (without a release) could cause the horse to panic. Make sure you know if the medication should be delivered IM: Intramuscular, SQ: Subcutaneous, or IV: Intravenous. Unless you have been trained, it is not advised to administer medications IV! Never reuse needles and syringes and you may want to draw medication with one needle and then change to a new needle prior to injection. Needles can be dulled when going through the rubber stopper and dull needles are harder to push into the skin as well as being more painful. If multiple doses are required, you will want to rotate injection sites. Watch for signs of reaction for 30 minutes.

[georgiagirl65]

on 11/13/2008 Clean the top of the bottle with alcohol before you put the needle in. That way you don't have bacteria in the bottle with the rest of the medicine and on the needle.

[abc132]

on 2/5/2008 Because of the horse's hair, it can be harmful to clean the injection site because you will acctually be pulling bacteria and dirt into the puncture you create with the needle if the area is wet. The only time when one should clean the area with alcohol or bededine is if the area has been shaved. Also, be sure to first insert air into the medicine bottle if you are giving a series of shots from the same bottle so as not to creat a vacume in the bottle.