Saline Contact Solution

Question
My rabbit has been prescribed Bicillin injections diluted with saline. I am supposed to give him his second injection today but noticed the bottle of saline the vet gave me is the saline solution you use to clean contacts. Is this safe to inject? I've called my vet but they are not in the office for the 4th of July weekend.

This is a relatively new exotics vet in my area that is supposed to be more rabbit savvy than the vet I was using. But when I have given Bicillin injections before they were always premixed in the syringes.

Answer
Dear Carrie,

If the solution you have contains anything other than water and sodium chloride, then I would NOT use it to dilute the dual-acting penicillin.  Contact lens cleaning solution contains detergents and other ingredients that might be harmful if injected.

I suppose the vet is having you dilute the penicillin because of its viscosity.  But still, be sure to draw back on the plunger after the needle is under the skin, to be sure you have not hit a blood vessel.  NEVER inject into the muscle.

We don't dilute the penicillin, but I suppose it would be harmless to do so as long as you use just pure, sterile 0.9% saline, not contact lens cleaning solution.

Hope this helps.

Dana