My name's David Wrighton and I am a Veterinarian officer in the department of
Primary industries from Regional Development working in the animal welfare policy division.
What I wanted to demonstrate to you today is the correct method of suturing
quite significant shearing wounds. So we've got a deceased sheep and we are
just explaining a common areas for the areas where sharing wounds can actually occur.
They can occur under the armpit under the areas of the abdomen
the pizzle area and also in the hamstrings as well as the neck.
We've opened the area up to reveal the underlying what we call fat.
We haven't entered the muscle layer at this present time.
we're going to now clean that wound and using an antiseptic
solution now this can be in the form of a registered antiseptic or it can be
simply used with salt water and that's like a tablespoon of salt to
a point or a liter of warm water mix it together that acts is a good antiseptic
spray that wound to clean it and our hands are dirty as well so ideally we
should be as well spraying our hands.
The needle and thread should be in forms of methylated spirit so anything like a
little small container be given to you with it at least that makes it a clean
stitching technique as possible. Take the first layer of skin on the side put
through the needle which is the shearers needle or S-shaped needle also known as
a post mortem needle with the thread which is going to be an extra strong
cotton and you'll see at the end of that thread we also have a knot already
placed enabling the suture mid to will not to run through the skin.
Place through the first layer of skin and the second layer of the skin and we're going
to bring the two edges together and then simply do a one single throw bring it
together and then do another throw
bring it together and finally a third throw and bring it together.
That area is now tight for us to continue the procedure.
So we're going to cut that last obsolete section of cotton material
and continue it the actual suturing method.
The important factor is not to go too wide if you go too wide it'll lose
the strength of the suture itself and you're more likely to get wound breakdown,
you should only be taking it only around about two maximum of three
centimeters away from your original suture otherwise the strength of that
stitching will not be as strong.
Take the needle go again grab the other end of the skin.
pop it through
repeat the process again.
The procedure will take slightly longer than you might have deem necessary but
it will ensure the strength of the wound
with this form of running stitch
make sure those two edges are coming together neatly
and we're not pulling too tight we're pulling reasonably tight just enough for
that you shouldn't get it to come up bulging otherwise you're going to be
causing more inflammation.
So we put in this this is the final one putting it through.
and this time instead of pulling tight we're going to allow a little bit
of looseness in that final loop the reason why are we going to be doing that
is to allow us to do that final knot and that final knot is going to be the
important one, so we go left over right warming a little throw pull tight.
Left over right again pull tight and a final one as well
and finally once we finish that knot we take the scissors and cut.
This procedure at the moment is done
without any pain relief we're hoping that the product will be utilized at the
same time as you spray the antiseptic that will contain pain relief
and that you will finish the sharing of the sheep first before finalizing the actual stitching method.
Once we finish this layer of suturing and the wound is now clean,
it's important that we disinfect that area using a form of antiseptic spray
and we've got one here an antiseptic spray we just cover that area
- obviously prevent any potential bacterial infection we could also use a
fly repellent around that area or combination to prevent anything any fly strike.
The animal should also be effectively marked clearly in order to
monitor the healing process of the wound itself.