Boar Castration

In the course “Large Animal Surgery & Lab.”, one of the labs was boar castration. Procedures include anaesthesia, fixation of a pig on the operating table, sterilization and operations. We have to strictly monitor the anaesthetic conditions throughout the process. Castration for the adult male pig basically is the removal of testis and epididymis followed by ligature of ductus deferens and testicular a.&v. The boar actually comes from the farm of laboratory pigs, owned by NTU animal science department. Students were assigned to different jobs.

Fortunately, I was responsible for the first half of the operation. After sterilization of both hands with alcohol, I had to wear on the sterilized gloves (which should not touch any objects other than the sterilized area!), followed by draping. After that, it was the incision finally, and then I took the testis and epididymis off and did the ligation as the final step. Surprisingly, there is no need to ligate the skin (which is present for the companion animals) as a result of limited resources available for the economical animals. The tissues inside are just exposed to surroundings! All in all, it was an interesting and meaningful experience for me.

– Linda Lau

This month in the Veterinary Leadership and Management course, our professor talked about teamwork, communication skills and leadership. I was told that body language and tonality were equally if not more important than the context of a speech. Also, when approaching the owners, we should always act in a way that we are trying to communicate, not just informing them. But when it comes to treatment options, we always have to stand our ground and clearly state that which tests or treatment are necessary, instead of trying to negotiate with the owners. For leadership skills, although not everyone wants to be the leader of the field or owner of a hospital, every vet is a leader when handling a case, we are the ones giving orders to the vet technicians so good leadership skills and teamwork are essential as well.

For my internship in the hospital, I came across a very cute cat this month, she is 15 years old already and suffers from pelvic pain due to old age and being overweight. But after receiving different treatments including electro-acupuncture, laser and magnetic field therapy, progress has been shown and I hope that she will get better over time.

－Ernest Yu