Surgery!

Today I got to help out with the spay/neuter clinic again! Except this time I got to observe the surgeries more closely than last time. To start though, I prepared Felovax and Rabies vaccines to give the cats. Once all the cats had be anesthetized, shaved, and scrubbed, the surgeries began! I I got to see a variety of different suture knots and incision techniques. I took advantage of the situation by asking the veterinarian any questions I had. Most of the questions I asked had to do with what things were called. For example, I learned that a cruciate mattress suture looks like a bunch of "x's." I also learned why certain procedures are used. For example, I learned that we suture many layers of the body in order to eliminate the dead space and reduce the risk of infection. One thing that the vet stressed over and over again was that we, as future surgeons, want to limit the amount of foreign material that we put into the body.

Similar to the spay packs I prepared.

Another valuable piece of information that I learned happened when I was cleaning and setting up the next surgery instruments! The medical lab director went over what the tools were all called. Just like with the lymph nodes, I had an idea of what certain things were called, but truly know it now. This spay pack included a spay hook (the long tool with a hook on the end) which is used to scoop out the uterus, uterine horns, and ovaries. Have a smooth hook on the end helps to grab on to the horns and pull the organs up through the incision site. Other tools in the pack were straight and curved hemostats. These are the scissor looking tools that when pinched together, stick together. These are used to cut off a blood flow of a vein to tie off or to hold other tissues and cut off the blood supply there. This is important because if the blood flow wasn't restricted, the animal could likely bleed out and it could turn into a detrimental situation.


I found this day to be particularly exciting for me because I've always wanted to specialize in surgical procedures beyond spaying/neutering. Being able to have the privilege of observing a real vet and vet students perform these surgeries is something I will forever remember!