Tips and Tricks and Cool Surgeries

Dr. M's 3 tricks for dealing with laceration wounds:
1. After scrubbing/rinsing the wound with the antibacterial gauze (i.e. chlorhex solution/water mix), put some lubricant (lube--like petroleum jelly) into the laceration (not if it's deep, of course). This'll protect it from most of the hair when you are clipping around the wound, so the fur doesn't fall in.
2. When "blocking" the area with a lidocaine, for pain, in several spots around the laceration, it'll sting and bleed. To help the pain, mix the very acidic lidocaine with some basic sodium bicarbonate. It'll neutralize in the syringe and when you put it into the skin, it won't hurt as badly. The lidocaine still makes everything bleed more, though.
3. Some people do the complete surgery sterilization routine for lacerations. There's nothing sterile about some dirty stick or object going under the skin and slicing it, so why would you clean it up sterile-ly? You'll simply contaminate your bacteria-free blade or whatever when you go into the wound to clean it, so... just use normal gloves and rinse with the antibacterial solution. You should give the animal antibiotics, anyway.

This was done on a sweet, skittish little german shepherd dog who had a nice 2-dollar-coin-sized hole in the skin on her side. I was just reassuring her while the doctor was kind enough to explain to me all this as she was working. This information is like gold! Same in the next story.... I was able to watch the surgery and listen to the info.

Gastrotomy---almond: A super-cute 8-week-old puppy, about 8 inches long, came in with digestive issues, and a painful belly. They took x-rays, and found that there was something in the puppy's digestive system, stuck. The owners thought it was beef jerky, but everyone knew it had to come out. So, they were preparing for the surgery during a busy evening, and I was upstairs for my mandatory dinner break. I was eating, and the doctor came to grab a quick bite to eat, and told me I was welcome to come into surgery and watch if I wanted to (she knows I want to be a vet). I was so excited....."DO I EVER!" :D I finished my food in record time and was so excited, then did my chores as fast as possible so I could go watch. I saw the ending of it, when the peritoneum wasn't quite sewed up yet. Dr. M. showed me all of the organs, and quizzed me. It's so beautiful.... I know non-medical people would never understand how it is beautiful, but it's just so amazing. I also learned that the fibrous line in the head-tail direction in the middle of the ventral (belly-side) abdomen (along the midline) was called the linea alba--- white line. This makes sense, since fibrous tissue is white. The doctor said they like to cut along there for surgeries, because it works better and heals faster than muscle. Good to know! Also, when you cut into the non-sterile bacteria-filled gut, releasing the germs into the sterile abdominal cavity, you're supposed to rinse it with sterile water and suck out that water---"lavage". Makes sense to me.The puppy did awesomely for the entire surgery, dispite his tiny size and young age. What a cutie.... they found that he had somehow eaten an almond. I don't know how he did that, since all he had were milk teeth, but oh well. Good thing they got it out... I bet he couldn't poop it out, since it was bigger than his bum!

Cryptorchid: Wow, another surgery! This was a cute 6-month-old kitten named Buck, who was there for a neuter. Usually someone checks if both testicles are descended, and kind of sticking out, but I guess this time they forgot. He ended up being cryptorchid: when one of the testicles was still hiding inside his abdomen, not dropped yet. He was already sedated, so they had to go into the abdomen to look for it. It's tiny, and one of the other doctors said they had to once do this surgery for 4 hours before they found the testicle! That sneaky little rascal.... They found it quickly, though, so that little guy Buck could go home at night, happily. Yay for happy endings!