Monday, August 25, 2008

That "other" time

I was in vet school on the equine surgery service. This mare comes in for us to fix a perineal laceration. These occur usually during foaling when the foal comes with it's legs a little out of position. Basically, this mare had no tissue between her rectum and vaginal vault anymore. Yes, she was pooping out her vulva.

So, our goal was to reconstruct this shelf of tissue between the rectum and vaginal vault. This involves long hours spend with long handled tools. And I mean LOOONNNNGGG handled tools. I'd never seen a scalpel handle 18 inches long before!

Remember that this procedure is literally right up the rear end of a horse. We had put a cotton "tampon" up her rectum to keep her from pooping on our parade. But remember, in horses the urethral opening is inside the vaginal vault. I'll never forget the sight of our equine surgeon standing with 18 inch instruments with his face 2 inches from the rear end of a horse and his mouth open in concentration. He was standing right like that when the mare urinated. On his face. With his mouth open. Twice.

That was such a good day.

3 comments:

Evil Transport Lady said...

ROFL!
Did the surgery work out?? Poor horse!

Anonymous said...

Oh my God. I will never complain about having a bad day ever again...being coughed on by angry strangers is nothing compared to being peed on by a horse.

Unknown said...

LOL! If I remember correctly, that urine comes out under quite a bit of pressure, too.

You are doing exactly what I wanted to do with my life before other aspects of life intervened.

Great blog... added to my bookmarks. :)