Skin Necrosis Due To Antibiotic Injection!

[Mrs.Wiffles]

As this site has been so helpful to me, I hope I can give something back by sharing this with you. It is not a common problem, but having been a former nurse (of humans ) I appreciate that these things can happen as a complication of injections. Just something to watch out for following an injection.

Some of you may recall that Harriet had an emergency midnight visit to the Royal vet college last week with suspected 'wet tail' and she was treated with an antibiotic injection in the back of her neck.

Well a couple of days ago, I noticed a scabby, crusty spot the size of a pin head, on the back of her neck and thought she must have scratched herself. I kept an eye on it as it did not appear to be bothering her until yesterday evening when I took her out of her cage for playtime to find that an entire area of all the layers of skin about the size of my baby fingernail was missing, therefore exposing her flesh underneath. It was not pretty although in all honesty she appeared totally unfazed by it probably because she couldn't feel it as the sensory nerves in the missing skin were gone.

I rushed her in to my vet (whom I trust implicitly with my pets) and he said that it was skin necrosis (dead skin) where the antibiotic injection for her diarrhoea had unwittingly hit a blood vessel thus destroying the blood supply to that area. The skin dies and drops off.

He cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide (which is the white colouring in the photos and then gave her a combined antibiotic and antiinflamatory injection into her rump. Bless her cotton pickin socks as she was so good and never complained.

I'm going to write to the Royal Vet College to inform them of this as I think they need to know. My aim is not to complain, but to make them aware so that hopefully they can learn from this.

Poor Harriet has certainly been through the rough since coming home to us but she is a sweetie with such character and we lover her to bits.

[NicoleL88]

The poor little pet!

Definitely write that letter and I hope you get an appropriate response. Hope she heals fully soon!

[souffle]

Aww that does look unpleasant. Hope she soon heals up and is back to good health in no time. Even though a needle seems very small to us to a hamster it does create quite a large wound.

[AliKati]

Aww Harriet, hope you return to your full pretty self soon...

[Hamtastic]

Yikes, I've been recommended rehydrating injections when Lucy will get a lot more ill, but I don't know if I can handle stressing both of us like that combined with the possibility of this reaction...

[MzWiz0915]

Aw bless her she has been through a lot! Glad to hear she doesn't seem to be in pain, and glad to hear she's gotten treated for it. I hope she has a quick recovery!

[racinghamster]

That does look nasty. I`ve heard of Baytril `burns` left on the skin from injecting Baytril but never seen it myself as I`ve always given Baytril orally to mice but not any of my hammies fortunately. I totally agree with you Mrs.Wiffles that they should know about this happening as it seems to me that a wound like this could easily become problematic on it`s own if it wasn`t to heal up. Just as well your a nurse!

Hope the wee one is feeling better. x

[firedrake13]

Aww little Harriet has had a rough time so far, what a lucky girl that shes got you

[Demecat]

You said it happens when the needle hits a blood vessel... I think this is just a genuine accident. Hamsters are so small, it can be hard to find a blood vessel, so when the vet thought he/she had just injected the needle into muscle, he/she might not have realised there was a blood vessel there.

[vanilla-yazoo]

The poor little darling! I hope it heals over soon!