Dr. Dan to the rescue with sutures

I think I might be crazy.

Why else would I order a box of sutures? It’s not like I’m a doctor, or even a vet. Or even a pretend Dr.  I have an entire medical bag full of scary Dr. looking stuff, plus a cabinet in the barn full of medical supplies just like the cabinet they have at the vet when I stop by there.

And now sutures. I don’t even wear shoes that need to be tied anymore. Everything I have is slip on which puts me on par with the kids five years ago, except theirs had velcro and lights that light up when they walk which means they were probably cooler than I am. What am I going to do with sutures?

Well first we had this girl.

Baby piglet being treated for a cut
Our little baby pig, born with a huge gash, getting cleaned up.

She was born with a huge gash from the back of her neck all the way down to her throat. We don’t know where it came from, some times child birth can be rough I guess. We washed her, disinfected the wound, and sewed up the gash with my handy sutures. I don’t think I’d win any awards for the suturing job but we did the best we could with a squirming pig. The good news is she is nearly fully healed at this point and is doing well.

Then yesterday we had this girl.

Post surgery, ready to go back to her friends
Post surgery, ready to go back to her friends

Spork noticed on Sunday that this pig had a gash in her side while we were giving a tour. It had just happened and I knew we’d need Miguel and Vicente to hold her while she was stitched up so we waited till they were at work to do the job. The silver is where the wound is but it’s hard to see the actual gash. We didn’t do the work in the back of the gator. We have a stainless steel table for that. This picture was on the ride back to her home.

Pig having been sewn up.
A little better view.

It’s still hard to see the wound but it basically covers the entire area that you see is silver forming a big V. There was a great big chunk of skin just hanging like a flap. The pig acted like it was no big deal but we wanted it sewn up anyway. It took about 25 stitches and some staples to get everything closed up, all the while Miguel and Vicente were holding the pig who really didn’t complain much.

It took two packs of sutures for each of these pigs meaning my box of sutures I ordered is now about half gone. I’ve gone from thinking I was crazy to have them, to now having to order replacements.

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