We use currently a steel gavage needle to deliver the substance to our rats.
I once saw someone using a plastic needle, and I gave the idea for my advisor, using the plastic needle to lower stress and avoid injuries, and she liked, but when I looked to buy, I only found disposable ones. And they are expensive.
I was wondering if I could buy a pack and use each needle for some monthes, because our budget is low, I would clean it after all deliveries, of course. What do you think about this?
Anyone with experience in using plastic needles?
Hi Victor,
We are working with mice, and we have switched from stainless steel gavage needles to plastic ones about two years ago. Although we never re-use them, I guess it's possible to do so, the same way as you would do for the steel ones. It probably depends on what you inject with it and how you clean it.
The way you need to handle the animals is a little bit different with the flexible needles, but you'll get used to it. The major drawback (apart from the price) is that if one of your rats bites the needle, it may become twisted, making it more difficult to use and almost impossible to reuse. If that happens, you also need to check that there is no perforation and no leakage of your solution before you inject anything. In conclusion, i would say that it is theoretically possible to reuse them if you really need it, but you're always one bite away from losing the needle. In our mice, it does not happen a lot if they have been handled before, but you often have some animals that are less cooperative/more stressed than the others...
Finally, I don't know from which supplier you intend to buy these needles, but we bought ours from Instechlabs: https://www.instechlabs.com/products/feeding-tubes/polypropylene. You can request free samples from them, so you can test it in real conditions before you make any real purchase:
Good luck with that!
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