Anaesthetising pigs is an interesting skill that I like to think I'm beginning to master.
First you pre-med the piggy with Ketamine and Xylazine in a syringe with a needle on the end of a extension set. You jab them in the muscle of the neck, the trick is to jab them on the side that's facing away from you so that when the pig jumps and tries to get away from the needle it actually moves closer to you. If they do run away then the extension set gives you a little leeway before you have to start chasing them.
Once the premed has kicked in and the piggle is recumbent, place a catheter into an ear vein (place it as peripherally as possible even though they look bigger proximally they are really wiggly, peripherally they lie in a cartilage groove and are much less mobile). Add an injection port and tape to the ear with brown tape and using a roll of elastoplast om in the inner side of the ear to stabilise it.
Give a bolus of Thio, and wait 30 secs before moving your piggy-wiggy to surgery.
Intubation requires a stylet in your ET tube, a reeeally long straight laryngoscope blade, an assistant to hold the mouth open and lignocaine spray (pigs laryngospasm as badly as cats do)
You will probably need to add another bolus of Thio at this point.
The pig has a really long soft palate, you will have to flick it off the epiglottis with your laryingoscope or ETT before you can see the arytenoids. Iggle-piggles also have substantial laryngeal saccules, if your tube goes into them it will go nowhere and twisting the tube will just move the whole larynx. Aim you tube ventrally and twist it through 90 degrees as you advance it. Tie in place as you would for a dog. Place on Iso and O2.
Ta da! Your pigwidgeon is now ready for surgerfying.
First you pre-med the piggy with Ketamine and Xylazine in a syringe with a needle on the end of a extension set. You jab them in the muscle of the neck, the trick is to jab them on the side that's facing away from you so that when the pig jumps and tries to get away from the needle it actually moves closer to you. If they do run away then the extension set gives you a little leeway before you have to start chasing them.
Once the premed has kicked in and the piggle is recumbent, place a catheter into an ear vein (place it as peripherally as possible even though they look bigger proximally they are really wiggly, peripherally they lie in a cartilage groove and are much less mobile). Add an injection port and tape to the ear with brown tape and using a roll of elastoplast om in the inner side of the ear to stabilise it.
Give a bolus of Thio, and wait 30 secs before moving your piggy-wiggy to surgery.
Intubation requires a stylet in your ET tube, a reeeally long straight laryngoscope blade, an assistant to hold the mouth open and lignocaine spray (pigs laryngospasm as badly as cats do)
You will probably need to add another bolus of Thio at this point.
The pig has a really long soft palate, you will have to flick it off the epiglottis with your laryingoscope or ETT before you can see the arytenoids. Iggle-piggles also have substantial laryngeal saccules, if your tube goes into them it will go nowhere and twisting the tube will just move the whole larynx. Aim you tube ventrally and twist it through 90 degrees as you advance it. Tie in place as you would for a dog. Place on Iso and O2.
Ta da! Your pigwidgeon is now ready for surgerfying.
OMG! We used to do it like this. Forane or halothane mask induction. Usually the Norwegian did this, rocking the pig in his lap singing a lullaby. We skipped the intubation part, doing trachs instead. (Toxic therapeutic ratio study, basically anesthetic overdose till death) We learned the hard way not to intubate them, took too long and had a high mortality rate. Then the lines, femoral PAC, ear IV, art line I cannot remember where. Its been 25 years ago, and I still do not eat pork!!!
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