We neuter (castration or orchiectomy) Guinea Pigs in a manner similar to other animals. We always use the laser for its major advantages of minimal to no bleeding during surgery, and minimal to no pain, swelling, and inflammation after surgery. Those of us that have had surgery are aware of how much pain there is after surgery, and we do anything we can minimize that pain for our patients.

Our laser is warmed up and calibrated for the specific surgery we are doing before we start the procedure

The laser is so important for our patients we use it on all of our neuters. Here is a short video of how we use it on a dog. Notice the lack of bleeding.

Sometimes people get a jaded mindset when it comes to routine surgeries like neuters, that are performed by the thousands, especially at low cost spay and neuter clinics. It is a major surgery, and we treat it as such at the Long Beach Animal Hospital, which you will learn about in this page when we neuter a cutie named Felix.

Several days prior to any surgery one of our doctors will perform a physical exam to confirm your pet is ready for anesthesia. At that time we will go over any questions you have.

On the day of surgery we need your Guinea Pig in the hospital between 7:30 AM and 8 AM. Feed your Guinea Pig the morning of surgery, and we will feed it also when it is here. We don’t fast them like we do with some other animals.

Our surgeon will call you after the surgery is complete and your Guinea Pig is awake. It can go home in the late afternoon the day of surgery unless instructed otherwise. Please call our office at 4 PM for pickup time, you will be given written post operative instructions then. We are open until midnight if you need to pick up later.

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This is a sterile surgery, and our surgeon starts the pre-surgical process by using special soap to clean his/her hands

We scrub all the way to the elbow to minimize any chance of spreading an infection during surgery

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While our patient is being anesthetized our surgeon is already in our surgical suite setting up instruments. Our surgeon is ready to start before our patient is at a proper plane of anesthesia. Once the anesthetist gives the green light the surgery starts immediately. We want our surgeon waiting for his patient, not the other way around.  All of this is to minimize anesthetic time.

We keep a close tab on important physiologic parameters for all of our surgeries to minimize the risk of anesthesia. Minimizing the anesthetic risk also allows our patient to recover from anesthesia faster and recover from surgery faster.

Brianna is listening to the heart rate of Felix during the surgery

Monitors give us an early warning of an impending problem. Instruments like this give us a big safety margin since we can anticipate problems before they cause any trouble.

Surgery-Monitor
This machine monitors:
Temperature
Heart Rate
Heart rhythm
Oxygen saturation
Carbon dioxide level
Respiratory rate


Important anesthetic data is recorded for this surgery 

Graphic surgical photos coming up

Most Guinea Pigs have both testes in the scrotum, making them readily accessible by a scrotal incision. On rare occasion they might be undescended and in the abdomen, although this is more of problem in dogs and cats.

Brianna, our anesthetist, is keeping Felix cozy and warm as she brings him into our surgical suite

Felix is put on a warm water blanket and Dr. Wood performs an exam on him to make sure he is ready  for anesthesia. When the OK for anesthesia is given Felix gets a pain injection. 

After the pain injection he is placed in a chamber with 100% oxygen along with an anesthetic

When Felix is relaxed his oxygen and anesthesia are administered by a special mask that fits over his face

Felix is given fluids under the skin (SQ or subcutaneous) to help support important internal organs like liver and kidney

Felix’s boy parts are cleansed carefully prior to surgery

Extra attention is paid to keep Felix warm due to his small size. Starting at the bottom, you can see three things in this photo to accomplish this:

Warm water blanket on the bottom
Fluids that have been warmed up above the blanket
Warm blankets that surround Felix on top


When our patient is ready for surgery we start the scrotal incision with the laser

The lack of bleeding on this highly vascular and sensitive organ is because of the laser, as opposed to a scalpel blade. In the above photo the scrotum has been incised with the laser and what you are seeing is a strong tissue covering the teste called the tunic. 

Notice in this video how there is no bleeding as the testicle is brought out of the incision with the tunic still covering it.  The laser will now cut through the tunic to expose the testicle.

Guinea Pig testes have substantial fat around them

The fat is ligated first. This fast has minimal blood supply so one suture suffices. 

The teste has a much greater blood supply than the fat.  It  is double ligated as an extra safety margin to prevent any bleeding after surgery


After transecting the blood supply to the teste our surgeon checks for suture integrity and any bleeding from the cut edge. We use the laser to cut the edge for control of bleeding and for comfort. 


When our surgeon is sure there is no bleeding the blood supply to the teste is placed back into the tunic

The tunic is sutured to prevent any hernia

A close up of the teste after it has been removed. On the right is the epididymis, on the left is the teste. 

The scrotum is closed with surgical tissue glue, which is much more comfortable than sutures

Our surgical patients are given cold laser (we call it Companion Laser) treatment to aid in healing and minimize post operative swelling and discomfort. You get to wear cool glasses when using this type of laser!

Dr. Wood is making sure our patient is doing OK before bringing him to recovery.

Felix recovered without any problems, and was soon munching away at his favorite food. The pain inject he was given prior to surgery is in full effect when he wakes up from surgery. If he needs more he will be given another one, although that is rare when we use the laser. He was a great patient, and will be back to doing his Guinea Pig thing in no time.  

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