Sheep Surgery
It so happened that we got the sickest sheep of the whole bunch*.
Foot rot so bad it didn't want to stand, body condition score of 1, drooling at the mouth (would that be rabies, orf, or ovine viral ulcerative dermatitis?). And I was supposed to do surgery on the beast and expect it to stay alive.
Actually, it was sort of a goof that we ended up with the fellow. There were extra sheep and we would have used one of them, but they weren't held off feed over night.
It took forever to get the jugular catheter in because his blood pressure was so incredibly low.
Dr. Riebold joke about needing a gas mask because the sheep stank so much.
The ram drooled plentifully on my dress as I restrained it.
Anyway, we opened the abdomen enough to insert an arm, and got to feel around for the liver, spleen, cecum, etc. I'm not experienced in intraabdominal sheep palpation, so it was a pretty new and valuable experience. It is often advised to use the same hand whenever you (ha!) palpate so that you engage the same part of your brain each time and can trigger memories of structures felt in the past. Everyone should have an opportunity to look in a sheep abdomen.
We then did an abomasopexy (the abomasum is the ruminant true stomach) via a right paramedian approach (look at this nice slideshow if you want the literally gory details). It's a procedure done for cows with left displaced abomasums -- this issue is common in cows, so it is wise for vets to know how to do corrective surgeries.
The trick is to suture the abomasal wall to the abdominal wall without including the abomasal mucosa (i.e. inner lining). You do that by "slipping" the mucosa with your fingers.
I did a five layer closure (phew!) -- internal rectal sheath incorporating abomasum, rectus abdominus muscle, external rectal sheath, subcutaneous tissue, skin.
Our sheep recovered and is actually doing better than he was before the surgery.
We were the lab clean-up crew, so we didn't get out until ~9 pm.
* Which reminds me of "The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick."
Foot rot so bad it didn't want to stand, body condition score of 1, drooling at the mouth (would that be rabies, orf, or ovine viral ulcerative dermatitis?). And I was supposed to do surgery on the beast and expect it to stay alive.
Actually, it was sort of a goof that we ended up with the fellow. There were extra sheep and we would have used one of them, but they weren't held off feed over night.
It took forever to get the jugular catheter in because his blood pressure was so incredibly low.
Dr. Riebold joke about needing a gas mask because the sheep stank so much.
The ram drooled plentifully on my dress as I restrained it.
Anyway, we opened the abdomen enough to insert an arm, and got to feel around for the liver, spleen, cecum, etc. I'm not experienced in intraabdominal sheep palpation, so it was a pretty new and valuable experience. It is often advised to use the same hand whenever you (ha!) palpate so that you engage the same part of your brain each time and can trigger memories of structures felt in the past. Everyone should have an opportunity to look in a sheep abdomen.
We then did an abomasopexy (the abomasum is the ruminant true stomach) via a right paramedian approach (look at this nice slideshow if you want the literally gory details). It's a procedure done for cows with left displaced abomasums -- this issue is common in cows, so it is wise for vets to know how to do corrective surgeries.
The trick is to suture the abomasal wall to the abdominal wall without including the abomasal mucosa (i.e. inner lining). You do that by "slipping" the mucosa with your fingers.
I did a five layer closure (phew!) -- internal rectal sheath incorporating abomasum, rectus abdominus muscle, external rectal sheath, subcutaneous tissue, skin.
Our sheep recovered and is actually doing better than he was before the surgery.
We were the lab clean-up crew, so we didn't get out until ~9 pm.
* Which reminds me of "The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick."
posted by Claire at 11:08
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