MSU Equine Summer Fellowship Blog: Follow the Fellows...: Week 1 in Surgery at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital

Hello Everyone from Lexington, Kentucky! It has been a busy week since I arrived here in beautiful Kentucky to spend the summer working with all of the incredible people here at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital. The pastures are green and the weather is amazing since both Sarah and I arrived here to start our summer journey. Sarah and I are living on a beautiful farm with 3 other interns, where we all get to share our different experiences here at the hospital at the end of the day. After starting work on Monday, I have spent the last 5 days working in surgery and it is amazing! Everyone works hard as a team to take every equine patient through surgery safely! My favorite part is how friendly everyone is and all of the different surgeries that are performed here at Rood and Riddle on a daily basis! Everyone works together as a team to make sure that every horse has a safe surgical experience. This first week I have been learning how to take a horse through surgery from induction, anesthesia, surgery, and then recovery. Some of the different surgeries that were completed this past week include sesamoid fracture repairs, various arthroscopies, an eye enucleation, a tie back surgery, colic surgeries, inguinal hernia repairs, a condyle fracture repair, and a bilateral cryptorchid! I have learned so much this past week and I can’t wait to continue on this journey! The day starts out by preparing for the different surgeries that are scheduled and then each technician will help induce, scrub and prep each patient, and then assist the doctor in surgeries, then help the horse to the recovery stall. It has been a great experience being able to be a part of the surgical process from start to finish. The surgeons at Rood and Riddle are Dr. Bramlage, Dr. Embertson, Dr. Ruggles, Dr. Woodie, Dr. Hopper, and the Surgical Resident Dr. Broyles. Every day multiple different surgeons perform different surgeries simultaneously so there is a lot happening all at once and so many opportunities to learn! A surgery that I thought was really interesting and I was able to help with from start to finish was a horse who was a bilateral cyrptorchid. Cryptorchidism means “hidden testes” and it is used to describe a condition where one or both testicles do not descend into the scrotum correctly. If a horse is only unilaterally undescended then it can still be fertile, but if both testicles are not descended then the horse is typically sterile. The retained testicles can be located in the abdomen or within the inguinal canal. It is not known what causes the retained testicles, but it is considered to be a combination of genetic, hormonal, and mechanical factors. All horse breeds are susceptible, but it is very common in quarter horses, saddlebreds, percherons, and ponies. The horse that had surgery was a thoroughbred. Surgery is recommended for treatment of cryptorchidism. The standard surgical approach was performed by Dr. Embertson and Dr. Broyles with the horse placed in dorsal position under general anesthesia. An incision was made over the external inguinal ring and the testicular tissue was carefully removed. The external inguinal was then closed and then the incision was closed routinely.