Just paid $thousands of dollars for a $0.30 piece of gear

[Tabasco]

I certainly would not suggest checking out Tractor supply or Agway, nor any type of veterinary supply house...

Those are big ass needles compared to the diabetic ones you get at a pharmacy. Having raised pigs and sourced syringes for antibiotics from our local AG store, I would not want to use one of those on myself. Try giving a pig an injection, and you'll see why they are so thick. Pigs don't like injections. Our vet was able to do it without issue. I had to wrestle. Pigs are strong.

[scjbash]

I've no idea if this is universal, but how needle exchanges work here is you sign up and are issued a complement of needles and given treatment resources. The local complement is 20, IIRC. You must bring all 20 back and exchange those that are dirty for clean. If you lose needles, you're out of the program. The idea is that it strongly discourages discarding needles in the street, in parks, etc. Other states likely do it differently, but that was a very conservative state's approach once a small town had an HIV outbreak where roughly 235 residents in a town of 4100 people were infected over a span of maybe 18 months. It is not a free for all of leave a needle/take a needle. Our city has recently done a pilot program along the same guidelines.

For quite a while our "exchanges" didn't require an exchange. Clearly asinine, but they claimed that the vast majority of addicts safely disposed of their used needles and the risk of HIV and Hep outbreaks caused by sharing them outweighed the risks to the public. Between that and the other bleeding heart shit going on addicts were moving here from all over the country. Eventually the more hidden spots favored by users had piles of thousands of needles, you couldn't go anywhere without stepping over them, and a couple of kids got stuck at playgrounds. The rules were changed to require an exchange and things improved but discarded needles are still a large problem. The health department offers disposal kits to businesses to use when they find needles on their property. It's a shitshow.

One of the two largest exchanges around here decided to shut down instead of allowing a compliance audit. Shows what really matters to them.

[ST911]

Unfortunately, I brought 2 syringes w/needles to Boston for the one injection I need while I’m here, but alas, the first had its sterility compromised by a broken package, and because I suck, the second one went straight into a nerve causing an instinctive withdrawal, rending needle 2 useless.

Normal/best practice is to use sterile packaged syringe with a site properly prepped. That said, a syringe with compromised packaging that is otherwise clean and controlled presents little problem potential in a healthy patient. Same patient, a syringe can be used for multiple successive injections. A syringe can also be sanitized and reused.

Next time go to the local Fire Dept (if they are ALS) and explain the situation. Here, where I work, we would have given you what you needed.

Yes, done this many times with credible requests.

I certainly would not suggest checking out Tractor supply or Agway, nor any type of veterinary supply house...

Those are big ass needles compared to the diabetic ones you get at a pharmacy. Having raised pigs and sourced syringes for antibiotics from our local AG store, I would not want to use one of those on myself. Try giving a pig an injection, and you'll see why they are so thick. Pigs don't like injections. Our vet was able to do it without issue. I had to wrestle. Pigs are strong.

18-25G are available from many ag/vet sources, My regular store stocks 25Gx1 1ml syringes - same as I get from Walgreens and off the bus - in sterile packaging and bulk. May be some regional/local variability though.

[Nephrology]

If I paid taxes……. I’d be fuming at the gross fraud, waste, and abuse on display with ya’alls money.

Don't worry plenty is taken directly from patient wallets too

The US healthcare system is a ongoing catastrophe that has worsened precipitously over my lifetime, I have been on the pokey end of it many times myself, but for now, I show up and try to look pretty

Normal/best practice is to use sterile packaged syringe with a site properly prepped. That said, a syringe with compromised packaging that is otherwise clean and controlled presents little problem potential in a healthy patient. Same patient, a syringe can be used for multiple successive injections. A syringe can also be sanitized and reused.

Yeah breaking sterile packaging on the syringe is fine. It is not intended to be sterile in the same way that a Bookwalter retractor is or whatever

Those are big ass needles compared to the diabetic ones you get at a pharmacy. Having raised pigs and sourced syringes for antibiotics from our local AG store, I would not want to use one of those on myself. Try giving a pig an injection, and you'll see why they are so thick. Pigs don't like injections. Our vet was able to do it without issue. I had to wrestle. Pigs are strong.

18-25G are available from many ag/vet sources, My regular store stocks 25Gx1 1ml syringes - same as I get from Walgreens and off the bus - in sterile packaging and bulk. May be some regional/local variability though.

In reading this I forgot how often I take for granted ready, instant access to coban, zofran, 4x4s, insulin syringes, and a myriad of other things that aren't (readily, cheaply) sold in stores. Just the other day I threw out over a dozen vials of lidocaine that I'd tracked home in my scrubs over the last 7 years. Healthcare really is a racket

[Artemas2]

Those are big ass needles compared to the diabetic ones you get at a pharmacy. Having raised pigs and sourced syringes for antibiotics from our local AG store, I would not want to use one of those on myself. Try giving a pig an injection, and you'll see why they are so thick. Pigs don't like injections. Our vet was able to do it without issue. I had to wrestle. Pigs are strong.

never done pigs, goats are like dried leather though. Our local TS has a number of smaller ones. OP was not overly specific on his needs, so just a thought. I also do a lot of work with kittens, and we get most of our supplies local.

As someone else mentioned it could be a regional thing too

[medmo]

never done pigs, goats are like dried leather though. Our local TS has a number of smaller ones. OP was not overly specific on his needs, so just a thought. I also do a lot of work with kittens, and we get most of our supplies local.

As someone else mentioned it could be a regional thing too

The TS and feed store near us sell a variety of sizes for use with poultry up to cattle. We are out in the country so not sure if that makes much of a difference.

[Odin Bravo One]

It does tend to make a difference. I can get syringes at our feed store too.

Go ask someone in Boston where the nearest feed store is located. You’ll know what it looks like to have people stare like you got a purple dick growing out of your forehead.

[03RN]

It probably would have been faster for you to drive 3hours north and get one from me.