This is for all my uni mates who are working hard to be vets and vet techs. I had a mad awesome time being involved in these surgeries, especially in such challenging conditions that called for a fair bit of poetic license and imagination!
3 Cheers for Rupununi Italian Bush Vet Stefi :D
There were 3 neuterings in all, in the order of dog - Blacky, cat - Sir Walter and 2nd dog - Soxy.
Here you can see the lovely Surgery Table ready and rearing to go. We used the wooden table in between the rooms of the trust house, covered with a plastic sheet, bits of rope ready to go to tie the dog into the right position if need be, drugs in the top left corner and gauze at the bottom.
Stefi was kind of nervous as this was her first unsupervised surgery, which would be harrowing enough without it being in the middle of the bush without a proper surgery table and equipment, no gas, no lights, wind blowing, flies everywhere and mozzies biting! She did an awesome job stepping up to the table as it were and it was great to watch her slice and stitch :D (yes yes I know, I'm weird).
Mid-surgery on Blacky, me on the left, Stefi in the middle and Ana on the right :)
Ana and I helped Stefi in anyway we could - holding the dog in the right position, holding stitches, holding testicles, checking Blackys breathing...all very cool.
Tada - The finished product: Blackys 2 testicles....2 removed, not 1, not 3 but 2. check.
My bathroom was then used as the patient recovery room - took out the washing basket and big mirror, and let him wake up in the quiet and dark. However due to a mistake that wasn't anyone's fault in particular Blacky escaped from the bathroom, still tottering and woozy. Unfortunately there was nothing we could do about it as he is a very nervous dog and at this stage we could barely get near him. So we just had to keep an eye on him from afar. Now strangely enough he greets Stefi and I quite happily, comes over for a voluntary pat and even wags his tail at us. For all he is a sweet he is still quite a cowed dog, which is a shame.
Stefi felt the first operation went so well, and so decided to do Sir Walter that same afternoon - she was on a roll! He was so much easier to do! Only one hole made to remove both testicles and no stitches! He healed beautifully, quickly and easily too, such a relief!
Hm I have used a lot of exclamation marks in this last paragraph...oh well...!
Stefi in the middle of removing one of Sir Walters testicles - so much tinier than Blackys!
Surgery over and successful of course - can you spot the testicles? haha. Sir Walter is still knocked out at this stage but slowly coming to. He then went into my bathroom as Blacky had vacated it. Stefi said it was important that Sir Walter woke up somewhere where he couldn't easily climb up onto cabinets, over walls etc as he was still woozy and could all too easily fall off and injure himself. The bathroom worked perfectly and he slept the afternoon away.
That night when I woke up to go to the bathroom I had to artfully sneak in without letting out the cat. He seemed happy and healthy enough and the whole time I was in the bathroom was spent with him winding his way around my ankles affectionately :)
Soxy was done a day or two later and the actual surgery went a.ok. It started with him being so to see us when we went to inject him with the anesthetic that he peed everywhere...oh joy haha.
After the surgery we spent a fair amount of time removing ticks from him as he was infested...no worse than that...riddled....no...Swarming with the things! It was rank. We pulled off approximately 84 ticks straight after the surgery and more after that until the count reached over 100 ticks for this 1 dog. No exaggeration.
Here the count was at about the 84 mark.
A hole in the left shoulder of Soxy made by a botfly or something...when the scab was pulled off and it burst leaking watery blood and puss all over the place...a lot of water blood and puss...GROSS!!!
Now because Soxy started chewing at his stitches as soon as he woke up we were forced to create a home made 'cone of shame'. This ended up consisting of an empty vodka box, electrical tape and rope.
He isn't looking too happy here haha poor man.
Unfortunately this box did not last. We went through 3 boxes over a few days and in the end there wasn't any point as it was too late to redo any of the stitches and both he and Blacky had by then chewed out all their superficial stitches. However with the help of a few antibiotic tablets for a few days they are both healing very well, they just won't have pretty city dog scars. They are savannah bush dogs after all ;)
So all in all this was a super cool experience for me and I was and still am so excited that Stefi is all too happy for me to give her a helping hand in all things she does :)
Over the last few days I have been helping her with all the cats and dogs - they are all due for dewormer and are also being given vaccines - one for rabies and one Triple for parvo virus, distemper and an intestinal disease I can't remember. I even got to give Waterton and Sir Walter their injections! :D Coool!! It was good practice for me giving the dewormer as the next time they are due (1 month) Stefi will no longer be here and I will have to give it to everyone, otters included. The boys Buddy and Philip are fine, Philip the Dim thinks he's getting more food so practically jumps at the syringe. Bel however, being the wary little creature she is knows something is up as soon as she spots the syringe. We have been trying to get her accustomed to it by putting it in the food bowl with her fish, so she is forced to get near it every time she wants fish and so will hopefully come to understand that it isn't going to eat her. Fingers crossed she accepts it soon as she is only going to get bigger and more wary and even now we can't forcefully hold her to give the dewormer without the risk of us getting bitten and her getting really angry and scared - which makes the next time all but impossible.
Also just last night I was helping Stefi sort her blood and faecal samples taken from some of Karanambu's cattle. Whilst she did the poo samples (haha) which consisted of taking some poop, putting it in a little container, mixing with alcohol and labelling; I looked after the blood. After it had been separated by the centrifuge I pipetted the serum into small little container doovies - I forget what they are called - and labelled them, leaving behind the coagulated red blood cells which are not needed.
I'll hopefully get the brain power and motivation to update again soon as I'm running a little behind :) Peace
