MediGel preparation
- Take the required amount of MediGel containers.
- Heat MediGel up to 50 degrees Celsius.
- In a 1 ml syringe, take 600 microliters from the 5 mg/ml Carprofen solution (use 20-gauge syringe for this).
- Inject the carprofen by poking through the aluminum cover of the MediGel (20-gauge is still fine.)
- Tape the hole made with a sticky tape.
- Mix using the Vortex machine or by hand. Mix well.
- Open up MediGel and suck up 30 ml of MediGel from each container using the automatic pipette and put it into a 50 ml Falcon tube.
- Put the 50 ml falcon tube to the 4 degrees Celsius refrigerator.
- Leave the remaining 30 ml MediGel-Carprofen mixture in the container and put the container into the angled holder.
- Repeat.
IMPORTANT NOTE
Take the drinking bottle out of the home cage, as the only source of water must come through MediGel.
How to measure adequate MediGel consumption:
One mouse must eat around 6 ml (5.6 g) of MediGel per day.
- Measure how much the MediGel weighs (gel + container) before putting the MediGel into the cage. Note it down into the scoring sheet.
- On the next day, check if the weight has gone down by 5.6 g or not.
IMPORTANT NOTE
Regardless of if the mouse consumed the adequate amount or not, YOU MUST NOTE IN THE SCORE SHEET HOW MANY GRAMS THE MOUSE CONSUMED IT!
If the mouse consumed less than 5 grams of MediGel:
A 500 microliter 0.9% sterile saline injection MUST BE MADE subcutaneously (NOT INTRAPERITONEALLY). This must be accompanied by a 25 microliter 5 mg/ml carprofen solution injection (both can be mixed and administered at the same time). USE A 30-GAUGE NEEDLE FOR INJECTIONS!
Example subcutaneous injection sites:
Do not mix with IP injection! This is an IP injection:
