KidneyCats Videos worth watching
The short answer
Yes, and there are good ones already made by other veterinarians, so I've pointed you at those rather than waiting until I've filmed my own. The one thing to look for in any fluids video is the camera angle: you want it shot over the owner's shoulder, from your eye line, not from across the room.
Are there videos showing how to give a cat subcutaneous fluids?
Yes, and good ones, made by veterinarians and veterinary technicians who film better than I do.
So rather than leave this page empty until I've made my own, here are the ones I'd actually point a client to. They're other people's work and I've said so clearly. When I film mine, they'll go here with a full written transcript under each one, because plenty of people would rather read than watch and every video on the internet assumes otherwise.
The ones worth your time
Watch two or three rather than one. Each demonstrator handles the restraint and the needle slightly differently, and one of them will match your hands better than the others.
Each of these loads from YouTube only when you press play. Nothing is requested from Google before that, which is the same reason the fonts on this site are self-hosted: nobody reading a kidney-failure page at two in the morning gets handed to an ad network on the way.
Loads from YouTube only when you press play, so nothing is requested from Google before then.
Loads from YouTube only when you press play, so nothing is requested from Google before then.
Loads from YouTube only when you press play, so nothing is requested from Google before then.
These aren't mine. I don't control them, and if one has disappeared by the time you read this, please tell me and I'll replace it.
What no video will teach you
This is the honest limit of the format, and it's the reason the written pages exist.
A video shows you one session, going well, with a cooperative cat and a competent demonstrator. What it can't show you is the part you'll actually need at nine o'clock on a Tuesday in week three:
- The soft lump that travels down to her chest or a front leg by bedtime, and why that's normal
- The needle that has gone straight through the skin tent and out the far side, so fluid runs down her flank instead of going in
- Why she cries, and the three things to fix in order
- What to do when she hides the moment the bag comes off the hook
All of that is written out on giving fluids when it goes wrong, and the full step-by-step with the kit list is on subcutaneous fluids.
Better than any video
Ask your own vet's technician to watch you give one in the clinic. Not to do it for you, to watch you do it.
When somebody is struggling with fluids at home it's almost always one small mechanical thing, and it's very hard to spot in your own hands. Ten minutes with a technician standing next to you fixes more than an hour of video. Any practice worth going to would much rather spend that time than have you quietly stop.
When mine go up
The plan, so it's on the record: fluids first, filmed over the shoulder, then giving a tablet to a cat who objects, then mixing a phosphorus binder into food so it disappears, then what a recheck actually involves.
Each will have the full transcript on the page underneath it. Not captions, a transcript, in text you can read at your own pace with the sound off in a waiting room.
The four slots are already here, and each one is the same slot as the one on the guide it belongs to. When a file lands it appears in both places at once.
Giving fluids, start to finish
Video coming. I'm filming these myself.
Pilling, and the water afterwards
Video coming. I'm filming these myself.
Mixing it in properly
Video coming. I'm filming these myself.
What a recheck actually involves
Video coming. I'm filming these myself.
Until then, the videos above are better than nothing and the written pages are better than both.
Questions people ask me about this
- Are there videos showing how to give a cat subcutaneous fluids?
- Yes, several good ones by veterinarians and veterinary technicians, linked on this page. Watch two or three rather than one, because each demonstrator holds the needle and the cat slightly differently and one of them will suit your hands. Then read the written steps, because video is poor at covering what to do when it goes wrong.
- What should I look for in a subcutaneous fluids video?
- The camera angle first: shot from roughly where your own eyes will be, over the shoulder, not from across the room. Then three specifics. Is the fluid warmed. Is the bag hung high enough to run fast. Does the needle go in flat and parallel to the spine rather than angled down into her back.
- Why don't you have your own videos yet?
- Because the writing had to exist before the filming did, and there were already good videos out there. Rather than leave this page empty or rush something, I linked the ones I'd send a client to. Mine will land here when they're made, each one with a full written transcript underneath it.
- Is a video enough to learn this from?
- For the mechanics, mostly. For the problems, no, and the problems are most of what people actually need. A video shows one session going well. It doesn't show the lump that travels to her chest, the needle that goes through and out the far side, or the cat who hides at the sight of the bag.
- Can I ask my own vet's technician to show me instead?
- Yes, and it beats any video. Ask for ten minutes with a technician to watch you do one, not to do one for you. It's nearly always a small mechanical thing making it hard, and that's exactly what you can't see in your own hands. Any decent practice would far rather spend those ten minutes than have you give up at home.
Medically reviewed by Dr. Steve Pelton, last updated . First published . Reviewed quarterly.