Surgery

Today was our group's third surgery day.  As I mentioned before, it was my turn to be the anesthetist.  I was actually more nervous to be anesthetist than I was to be surgeon since if the animal dies due to a human error, it is most likely the anesthetist's fault since they are the ones dealing with the drugs and monitoring the animal during the surgery.  I gave premedication around 730 this morning to sedate the dog.  We then clipped the surgical area and flushed the prepuce and then away we went to the surgery suite.  There I placed my first IV catheter ever.  I was pleased that I succeeded as the dog was difficult to draw blood from yesterday and had short stubby legs but I was able to get it on the second try.  Once the catheter was secured in I just had to wait for an anesthesia technician to come over and guide me in intubating the dog.  I gave propofol through the catheter to knock the dog out and then opened the dog's mouth and gently put the endotracheal tube down the dog's windpipe.  Then I attached the dog to the anesthesia machine, turned on the gas anesthetic and away we went.  Finally, I also placed an esophageal stethoscope, a stethoscope that I put into the mouth and pushed it down into the esophagus so that it went right down into the chest next to the heart.  Every five minutes I had to check heart rate and breathing rate by using the stethoscope.  I also had to hook up fluids and monitor the fluids going in to the dog through his catheter.  After the surgery I unhooked the dog from the anesthesia and then once he was awake and chewing we removed the endotracheal tube and allowed him to wake up and warm up before popping him back into his cage.  Overall, the surgery was successful and our dog, a 2 year old grey and white shih tzu, already has a home to go to once he leaves!