Introduction
Spaying a pig has similarities to spaying
dogs
and cats,
but not a lot! It is an interesting surgery because of the unique
anatomy of the pot bellied pig. They have miles of intestines and a
uterus that's very long because of the large number of piglets that
are born at one time.
On the day of surgery we need your pet in the hospital between
7:30 AM and 9 AM. Please take away all food and water when you go to bed the
evening before surgery, and do not give your pig anything to eat or drink the
morning of surgery. It will go home in the late afternoon the day of surgery.
Please call our office at 4 PM for pickup time, you will be given post operative
instructions then.
This is Elly, a young lady who will be our
patient today.
Anesthesia
Pre-anesthetic preparation is important in
every surgery we perform, no matter how routine, because surgery is not an area
to cut corners. All of our spays receive a physical
exam prior to surgery. Only if they
pass this exam will we draw a small amount of blood for an in-hospital
pre-anesthetic test.
When everything is to our satisfaction we will administer a sedative. This will
calm the pet down and make the administration of the actual anesthetic, along
with post operative recovery, much smoother. Once a pet is anesthetized,
prepared for surgery, and had its monitoring equipment hooked up and reading
accurately, the surgery can begin.
Pigs need to be monitored
carefully for overheating during anesthesia, which is the opposite of
most anesthetized animals. They produce more body heat relative to
other animals because of their large muscle mass. Pigs do not sweat
or pant, they need to be in contact with something cool to rid of
excess body heat. Because of this we constantly monitor their
temperature during and after the surgery.
Surgery
The following area contains
graphic pictures of an actual surgical procedure performed at the
hospital. It may not be suitable for some children (and some adults
also!).
Every major
surgery we perform begins with proper patient preparation. This
will help prevent infection, which could be a serious
complication in this surgery because during a spay we have an
opening into the abdomen.
The surgeon makes an
incision near the umbilicus and extends it 3-5 inches in the
direction of the tail (the tail is at the left in this
picture). We try to make our incisions as small as possible to
minimize anesthetic time, decrease post operative discomfort,
and minimize the healing time.
The tissue just underneath
the skin is called the subcutaneous layer. It consists mostly
of small blood vessels, and of course fat (this is a pig after
all).
The final layer we need to
cut before we are actually into the abdomen is called the linea
alba. It is an area of muscle in the center of the abdomen that
is covered by a tough layer of tissue. This is the most
important layer resutured at the end of the surgery because it
is the only layer strong enough to hold the abdominal muscles
together to prevent a hernia. In this picture the linea is
being held up with a forceps, and a scalpel blade (held upside
down) is being used to make the incision.
Scissors are commonly used to extend the linea incision
and facilitate the removal of the uterus. Care has to be taken not to
puncture internal organs like the bladder.
Buried within the abdominal organs and
abdominal fat is the uterus. A special instrument called a spay hook is
sometimes utilized to gently pull one of the uterine horns through the
abdominal incision.
The uterine horn is traced into the body
cavity until the ovary is found. It has to be gently teased
from its location near the kidneys in order to be able to pull
it out through the abdominal incision. In older pigs this part
of the procedure is much more difficult. This ovary (arrow) has
several follices forming, which is the bumpy
appearance.
The blood supply to the ovary is extensive,
so a special technique is utilized to prevent hemorrhage. This
technique involves the use of special clamps. The smaller arrow
on the top points to the ovary, which will be removed along
with the clamp. The 2 larger arrows on the bottom point to two
sutures used to tie off (called ligation) the blood supply to
the ovary. This area is called the pedicle, and will be
replaced back into the abdomen when the surgery is
complete.
When both ovaries have been removed
the body of the uterus is now ligated. You can see the first
suture being placed at the top of the screen.
Another ligature is placed around the body and the uterus
is cut away.
The linea alba is now securely
resutured. Stainless steel sutures are sometimes used because
they are very strong, cause minimal tissue reaction, and show
up vividly on an x-ray of the abdomen .
The subcutaneous layer is now closed with a
type of suture that dissolves over several
months.
The last layer sutured is the skin.
Sometimes we put the sutures on the outside, which means they
have to be removed in 7-10 days. We call this a bikini
scar.
It is at this point that we will
give a pain
injection, which might
make this pig groggy for the evening.
Postoperative
Care
Most pigs go home late in the
afternoon on the day we perform the surgery. They might be groggy
from the pain injection which is advantageous because they will
remain calm and allow the healing process to start immediately. By
the following morning the grogginess will have worn off.
When you first get home do not be in a big
rush to feed. After 1 hour at home offer a small amount of food and water. If
the appetite is good, offer more several hours later. Do not over do the feeding
the first night because anesthesia can make them nauseous.
Keep contact with children and
other pets to a minimum the first night, and restrict activity for
several days to allow the incision to heal. Try not let your pig go
outside until healing is complete.
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