First Solo Surgery Was A Rabbit Castration

Since my spey today was cancelled, the vet running our roster suggested I scrub in for the rabbit coming in. I saw one last week; the student had scrubbed in, but the vet did the surgery. Thus I was not expecting to be the sole surgeon on this rabbit.

After anaesthesia got the rabbit asleep, I went ahead and scrubbed and gowned. I didn't think it was strange that the vet hadn't scrubbed yet, because they often wander around doing other things and scrub in quickly at the last minute. However, as I stand there awkwardly with my hands clasped in front of me, peeking into the anaesthesia room, the vet turns to me and says, "Okay, come in in and we'll get started. You can go ahead and drape." Que question marks over my head--isn't she scrubbing in, too?

No. It was just me. She directed me, but I was the only person scrubbed in for the first time ever, and it was a rabbit. Rabbit castrations are done just in the anaesthesia room, rather than the operating theatre, which is quite a tiny space. I guess that is fitting for quite a tiny patient. We set up my instruments just on a stool, and I was given the warning, "Don't knock this over," as the stool seat is exactly the same width as the box holding the instruments. I also had an awkward time draping, since the table was up against a wall--how do you get around the other side? I ended up doing three drapes in a triangle rather than four in a square.

And then we were off. Rabbit balls are long and kidney-bean shaped, and they also sometimes get sucked back into the abdomen. This happened as I was working on the first one, and the anaesthesia student had to reach under the drapes and press on the abdomen to pop the testicle back out. Another difference is that they are actually adhered to the skin, so you have to dissect them free (and not drop them into the abdomen while doing it). But overall, it was fairly simple, and I got out both balls without a hitch.

My only mistake is that I'm not used to working on live animals, and no one has really taught us about tissue handling, so I kept clamping the instruments on too tight. You see, I have haemostats at home to practice with, and I just clamp and unclamp them, plus they are difficult to operate so I got good at squeezing them really hard. Even in labs it's never mattered whether you do one, two, or three clicks. So I just squeeze my hand and get whatever amount of clicks I end up getting, without really thinking about it. But as I learned, three clicks is way too many for poor, delicate rabbit skin and tissues, affirmed by the vet's repeated wincing.