We've been having issues for a while now, and they just seem to keep on coming! We had problems with Jasper being pretty aggressive each time we had to do his injection and it ended up being that we couldn't test him anywhere near as often as I'd like and having to skip some doses so nobody got hurt. Last Friday we noticed that all of his aggression was directed at my husband, who always had Jazz on his lap while I did the injection. After another failed attempt I sat in the chair and Jasper wanted to just sit next to me so we thought "maybe he'll let me do it on my own." For a few days I was able to get him after meals when he was getting ready to nap or even a couple of times during his meal (on my lap) which I hadn't been able to do.
Now, we're having problems again :cry: A lot of the time he gets suspicious when I pinch the skin to tent by the shoulders. We had to take him to the vet and shaved off the mats of fur since he doesn't do too great at grooming, and I don't have any fur to use anymore. Last week we also got the shorter syringe (8mm), 31 gauge after using the 12.7 mm. I suspect that I must have hit some muscle or something with the longer needle and he didn't like injecting in general at that point, so we figured it couldn't hurt to try the shorter needle to avoid stress for both of us. We give treats and try giving lots of loving, he always goes to the same place we do our injection routine at his own will. Only a couple of times has he gotten into a happy, purring mood in our spot. It's not a loud/noisy, rowdy environment, our other cats aren't around to distract or come into his space. He's quite lovey and likes to cuddle (with me and not my husband, that is) the rest of the time, doesn't hide from me...so he doesn't seem to distrust me.
The past few days I haven't been able to inject when he eats or when he's getting simmered down for his post-meal nap. Each time I try to get a good tent he stops eating or turns around to look at me, sometimes giving a warning meow to knock it off. If I do manage to get the needle into the tent he doesn't like it one bit. It's getting so incredibly stressful for his twice daily injection. I don't reuse needles, I always draw the insulin into the syringe and let it warm up a bit, I can't possibly be hitting muscle with such a shorter needle now. The only thing I can think of is that his skin is just too sensitive. He doesn't really like to be touched anywhere except for his head to be pet, everywhere else even with being shaved he gets angry and his skin twitches. We hoped that with him being shaved that we could rule out painful mats as being our problem with him not even liking us tenting the skin.
I don't know what else to do.
Now, we're having problems again :cry: A lot of the time he gets suspicious when I pinch the skin to tent by the shoulders. We had to take him to the vet and shaved off the mats of fur since he doesn't do too great at grooming, and I don't have any fur to use anymore. Last week we also got the shorter syringe (8mm), 31 gauge after using the 12.7 mm. I suspect that I must have hit some muscle or something with the longer needle and he didn't like injecting in general at that point, so we figured it couldn't hurt to try the shorter needle to avoid stress for both of us. We give treats and try giving lots of loving, he always goes to the same place we do our injection routine at his own will. Only a couple of times has he gotten into a happy, purring mood in our spot. It's not a loud/noisy, rowdy environment, our other cats aren't around to distract or come into his space. He's quite lovey and likes to cuddle (with me and not my husband, that is) the rest of the time, doesn't hide from me...so he doesn't seem to distrust me.
The past few days I haven't been able to inject when he eats or when he's getting simmered down for his post-meal nap. Each time I try to get a good tent he stops eating or turns around to look at me, sometimes giving a warning meow to knock it off. If I do manage to get the needle into the tent he doesn't like it one bit. It's getting so incredibly stressful for his twice daily injection. I don't reuse needles, I always draw the insulin into the syringe and let it warm up a bit, I can't possibly be hitting muscle with such a shorter needle now. The only thing I can think of is that his skin is just too sensitive. He doesn't really like to be touched anywhere except for his head to be pet, everywhere else even with being shaved he gets angry and his skin twitches. We hoped that with him being shaved that we could rule out painful mats as being our problem with him not even liking us tenting the skin.
I don't know what else to do.
