Thursday 1 December 2016

Dog c- section

This week, a dog came into the practice. She had been in labour for 12 hours. She was quite old and had been impregnated accidentally by a larger dog. It was thought that the dog had Singleton Syndrome where only one abnormally large puppy is formed.

As soon as the dog arrived and the relevant consent forms had been signed she was taken into the back room for surgery preparations. She needed an IV fluids drip before she could be operated on. To insert the IV drip the dog’s forearm was shaved in a small area between the elbow and the paw. I held the dog and raised the Cephalic vein for the needle to go in. Once the operating room was prepared and the vet and nurse were ready the dog was anaesthetised. It was important to have the dog anaesthetised for as little time as possible because of the potential harm this can cause the puppy.

The dog was transported to the operating room where she was laid on her back on a heat pack. After the midline abdomen was clean and shaved the vet made his incision. The uterus took up a lot of the abdomen space and was found quickly. The uterus was cut open and the puppy was taken out.
My job was to gently flick the puppy upside down to remove the amniotic fluid from its airways and then rub its sides vigorously to resuscitate it. The vet proceeded to peel out the placenta so that it would not cause an infection. When the vet checked the uterus he found that there was a second, unexpected puppy, which the nurse resuscitated.


The uterus was stitched up once, and then a second time to close over the stitches and make sure there was a strong seal. After the uterus, the abdomen muscles, and the fat layer were stitched together the skin was stitched and cleaned before the dog was returned to her kennel with her two puppies.

No comments:

Post a Comment