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Agricultural Species Surgery Checklist

Review the IACUC Guideline on Survival Surgery (IG024) for details. Consult with CAR veterinary staff-ORRS.DL.MSUFarmvet@msu.edu on surgical guidelines and training assistance.

Agricultural species - Warm blooded vertebrate species intended for research, teaching, or testing related to food/fiber production, breeding, and management efficiency. 

Surgery Room/Area

  • Procedure/Hospital Areas should be clean from manure and gross contamination, i.e. pressure washed, hosed down.
  • Provide adequate lighting to area for visualizing surgical site and access.

Patient Preparation

  • Remove hair from surgical site with clippers.
  • Administer pre-operative analgesics as indicated.
  • Perform surgical scrub using a skin disinfectant.
    • Alternate wiping site up to 3 times the disinfectant agent (i.e. chlorhexidine-based scrub) with ethanol.
  • Prepare warm saline or LRS (fluids) for prolonged or invasive procedures.

Preparation of the Surgeon, Instruments, and Sterile Field

  • Ensure appropriate instruments have been sterilized.
  • Don clean laboratory coat/coveralls; remove all jewelry (rings, bracelets, watches, etc.). Don a surgical mask and clean hair covering.
  • Create a sterile area.  Cover the surgical site/animal with a sterile drape in areas where a large surgical field cannot be clipped and prepared.  Any portions of the handling chute that may contact the surgical field, instruments, etc. should be covered with a sterile drape.
  • Anything touching the sterile field, drape or portion of the animal surgically prepared, must be sterile.
  • Scrub hands, dry, and then don sterile gloves when prepared to begin surgery.

Surgery and Intraoperative Monitoring

  • Ensure sterile technique and handle all tissues with care and precision.
  • Use caution when performing subsequent procedures on multiple animals.
  • Do not break the sterile field.  Use sterile instruments on each animal.  This may be through use of cold sterilization if appropriate.  See IACUC guideline IG024 for more information.

Postoperative Care

  • Monitor the animal continuously until it is conscious; then every 10 – 15 minutes until fully ambulatory if general anesthesia has been used.  House animal individually until fully ambulatory.
  • If local anesthesia affecting gait and coordination (e.g. epidural, regional anesthesia) has been used, do not move animal from procedure area until coordination and normal gait has returned.
  • Report any concerns or complications to the CAR veterinary staff (mailto:ORRS.DL.MSUFarmvet@msu.edu).  Use of any medications must be communicated with the farm staff and appropriately documented in farm medical records in addition to laboratory records.