Ghana Love It Part 4

Previous - Part 3

Mma Aha, everyone... Now edited with photos!

Today's post will be a bit short as I would like to go back and make sure my roommate Maddi is ok, we took her to the hospital yesterday to get her some antibiotics for a stomach bug ... she was very sick to her stomach and dehydrated. She stayed home from work today, which I believe to be the best decision, so I really hope she rested up and managed to replenish some fluids in her system. Note: This blog is mostly about my veterinary outreach today, and less about Ghana.

For today, I performed my first surgery ever - two pig castrations. Slight gore descriptions and photos ahead. And apparently there will be many more. My two other interns with me at the time as well as our supervising veterinarian were there to show me how, though it is much different watching the surgery compared to actually performing it. For one thing, everything is much harder than the other students made it look. Two farmhands helped hold the young pig for me as I first swabbed the (very noisy, may I add) pig down with water and antiseptic. Next I began to shave the balls and inject local anesthesia (5 mL) into different locations followed by incisions through a couple layers of skin. Next I needed to pull out the testes and separate from the peritoneum by ripping a bit of the membrane with my fingers (it was pretty hard to hold, and quite small) then cutting a bit with a scapel. After this I proceeded to pull out as much of the testicle and the epididymis as possible from the pig (though careful not to rip) and separated the two. I then used the epididymis to tie 2-3 knots around the blood vessel and connection to the testes, and made absolute sure the knots were very tight and secure. I then took the clamp scissors (I don't know the actual name, haha) and used them to cut off circulation between my knots and the rest of the testicle and epididymis head. I cut off the testicle and epididymis close to the clamp, put it back inside the incision I made, and proceeded to do the same with the other testicle. We did not suture the holes made but instead used (I did hear the name, and now I forget what exactly it was called) a blue antibiotic spray to coat the incisions, as well as two shots to the neck (again of something I should really remember the name of.) All in all I was very slow at it, as tying knots with slippery ropes can be frustrating. I enjoyed it overall, however, and I thought it was one of the best experiences I have ever had. My first surgery!

The pig sure looks relaxed

A different time we were castrating pigs - when Maddy was feeling better. I also have a video of myself castrating a pig.

We also did a post-mortem on a small piglet beforehand, trying to find the cause of death. This was the first time I got to see a post-mortem on a larger animal like a pig and the veterinarian took his time going through the many ideas and deductions he made trying to solve this animal's particular cause of death. It was very interesting seeing this problem-based learning, as it felt like I was going backwards through an ordinary textbook. See the tail? The tail is bitten off, which could be a problem as there is a large blood vessel there. This could be the cause of death, but we don't know. Oh see here? The heart has blood clots. So this animal had a heart attack. And the lungs are very inflamed. See the spleen? It is very small, pointing to a chronic infection. The kidneys are ok, and the intestines are ok, leading me to believe this pig first had a respiratory infection, then the stress of the chewed tail finally killed it. And so on, this is how we as a group discovered the path through the puzzle of this piglet's death. The vet also took the time to pull out and show us the individual organs, as well as emptying out the stomach and telling us about various digestive enzymes used to help the pig eat. It was extraordinarily interesting.

That was about it for the rest of the week, see you next blog update!

Another farm we went to

Next - Part 5

- Marissa