VCP 421: Medicine Section

Routes of administering medications

ROUTES OF ADMINISTERING MEDICATION

Types of injections

Type		Where injection should be given
SQ	Subcutaneous	Under the skin	axilla (armpit) over ribs up on neck behind shoulder
IM	Intramuscular	In the muscle	neck muscle
IV	Intravenously	In the vein	jugular vein
IP	Intraperitoneal	Into the peritoneum	body cavity
Intramammary		Into the udder	teat canal

Drenching

• Liquid medicines are poured down the animal's throat or use an oral syringe with a long metal nozzle also automatic drench guns can be used for large numbers of animals.
• Place a hand under the animal's head and tilt it slightly to the side.
• The gun nozzle should be placed in the gap between the molar and incisor teeth and then over the back of the tongue.
• Animal should swallow before the gun is removed.
• Covering the animal's nostrils will encourage swallowing.
• Animal’s head should be held horizontally if not leads to poor drenching causing aspiration pneumonia (an infection of the lungs caused by breathing in foreign material).
• No forcing follow the regular pattern

Boluses

• Boluses (or capsules) by using a balling gun.
• A balling gun is a plastic or metal tube with a capsule holder on one end and a plunger on the other end (to eject the capsules) and is inserted into the animal's mouth depressed until the end of the gun is over the base of the tongue. Otherwise, the pill may be chewed or spit out by the animal.