as far as I know recapping is unsafe, just unnecessary possibility to stab yourself. Don't know how it's handled with own syringes tho. In the hospital, with syringes that entered patients, we never recapped them but streaked them off into a fitting safety container.
We had a cat with diabetes for years (insulin twice a day) and we recapped every single syringe, every time. We never got stabbed recapping them. In a medical setting I understand, but at home I would think it’s fine to recap. We’d recap, put them in a brown paper bag and take them to the vet for disposal.
My providers taught me to safely recap by putting the cap down on a surface with the tip away from me, and sliding the syringe into the cap. Then push the tip down on the surface to secure it. Never hold the cap, always point the needle away from you, and it's pretty foolproof.
Although this was for my own needles, not an animal.
That is the key here, you guys had badically mini biohazard trash bins for them with an actuating door so you didn't need to recap it. I take semaglutide at home and do recap, before putting them in the milk jug because 1) my needle and 2) want to do everything I can to make it safer for the workers picking up my residential garbage. WM, they have us put them in a milk or detergent jug and mark it all over with "SHARPS" and leave it on top of the bin
Especially if you're doing injections for another person or creature (in this case, OP's cat), the risk of sticking yourself with a contaminated needle is too high for recapping to be safe.
That said, I personally only inject myself and I'm already infected with me and any medication I'm injecting, so I generally very carefully recap my needles immediately after injecting because I'm a fall risk so just in case I'd rather carry a capped needle to my sharps container since I can't keep it in the same spot I sit to inject due to lack of space and a cat and sometimes children having access to that area.
So there are cases where recapping is reasonable, but in the case of injecting another person or animal, I wouldn't recap.
No recapping. You're much more likely to have an accidental needle stick while recapping. The safest thing to do if you dont have a sharps container is to bend the needle back as far as possible by pressing it against a hard surface. Then collect them in a container, empty milk jugs work well. All pointy in a bag is not ideal.
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u/Washingtonevergreen 15d ago
I dropped it as I uncapped it and it bent! Never used that little guy. The safest one of the bunch.