I used to do my own for eons. Then for about the last 5 years I’ve had my vet do them. Now I am once again buying from Valley Vet and doing my own.
But then…do a full scrub? Use several gauze squares, so you’re actually removing any debris, and clean the betadine off with alcohol or sterile saline. Or do the passive scrub by clipping, using nolvasan, and cleaning it off. There’s a reason behind the process as it stands, and betadine is irritating to tissues. Leaving it on to be dragged in with the needle may actually make a clostridial abscess more likely, not less. We know that many of those abscesses have nada to do with contaminants and are due to tissue irritation setting up the right environment to allow dormant spores already in the tissue to flourish.
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@Simkie - then I guess I can count myself lucky, huh. Good grief already. Nobody’s ever told me what you just did. (This is where I say ignorance was bliss…)
