Hello everyone! im back to share with you all about surgical castration of rats!
Castrated rats would have testosterone levels near null levels because of the removal of the testes. Therefore, surgical castration of rats is done in my lab to test if our drugs have an effect on testosterone levels in them.
Removal of testes from a rat is a very painful procedure, as it concerns one of the most sensitive organs of the rat. Therefore, these rats have to be anaesthetized and given pain-killers before starting the operation so that it would feel the least pain during removal.
When the rat is fully anaesthetized, we would clean the genital area of the rat with iodine to make sure that it is sterile. Then we make a small slit of about 1cm in the skin at the tip of the scrotum of the rat. Then using forceps, we remove the connective tissues around the sacs so as to isolate the scrotum sacs. Then we suture the top of the scrotum sac so as to prevent blood flow into the testes and then using a sharp scissors, we cut off the whole sac. This procedure is repeated for the other scrotum sac.
When both testes are removed, we check for any signs of bleeding. These openings would then be sewn together to prevent haemorrhage. The inner muscular walls would then be sewn together followed by the skin area. Suture is done discontinuously so that when the rat bites on one of the knots, only one suture would fall out and not the whole line of suture.
After this, the area would be cleaned again with iodine and antibacterial medication is applied on the area of surgery. Antibiotics would also be given to the rat to prevent bacterial infections from occuring.
The rats would be observed until they recover from the anaesthesia. The rats would be given pain-killers, antibiotics and antibacterial medication for the next three days. Overall, the rats for my project that have undergone castrations are recovering well and is slowly recovering activity.
Ok, thats all folks.
will update again soon!
Renee
0703634F
TG02
HEY RENEE!
ReplyDeletewah so sad =( will castrating the rats give them any side effects? will it hurt them in any ways?
thank you! =)))
Joanna Yeo!
0702054H
Hi renee,
ReplyDeleteJust wondering is the sewing part very difficult to carry out? since it involved the inner muscular walls also. thanks!
zi shuang
Phew, finally, u do something to the rats and they dont die, lolz ^^
ReplyDeleteA very short Qn, wat is the antibiotic that u inject into the rats yah? Is it just a common type like Pen/Strep or diff rats have diff requirement? =D
Take care, hope to see u randomly on the LRT, hahaha
Vo Thu Hong Anh [Jess Vo]
0705364H
Reply to Joanna!
ReplyDeleteHey girl! haha! The only thing i know is that castration would cause the testosterone levels of the rat to drop. So far, my rats are all recovering well. No side effects were seen, but some changes to the rat would be like loss of agressiveness. They start to lose their 'manliness'. HAHA! Pain would be there, therefore we inject painkillers for the next few days to prevent them from hurting. Its just like humans, when the anaesthesia is gone, they would start to feel the pain from the removal of the testes.
Reply to Zishuang!
Yea! the suturing was quite challenging. Its really difficult to suture neatly. HAHA! and you are right! suturing the inner muscular wall is the toughest!
Reply to Jess!
HAHA! they die eventually though, because we have to take the tissue from them after treatment... haiz...
The antibiotic that i inject into the rat is called Baytril which is the common pet anaesthesia used. It does not contain pen/strep, but contains enrofloxacin, sulfur, sulfadiazine, alcohol, neutral oil and an emulsifying agent. It has antibacterial activity against gram negative and positive bacteria: )
HAHA! hope to see you on the LRT too!
Thanks alot for all your questions. Will be glad to clarify further queries! thanks!
Renee
TG02
0703634F
haiz, at least they can live a bit longer, though no more 'manly', oopz, ahhaha =P
ReplyDeletethankz for the answer yo! very clear ^^
Vo Thu Hong Anh [Jess]
0705364H
Renee.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you use iodine instead of ethanol (HAHA!) to swab the genital area? Moreover is 1cm slit abit too big? Will a smaller slit reduces the chances of infection?
Li Yinliang Alex
TG02 0704894E
Group 8
26/08/09
hey renee!
ReplyDeleteu said that your lab carried out this surgical castration of rats so to test if the drugs have an effect on testosterone levels. can I know what type of drugs do you usually test?
siti :)
0702717J
Reply to Alex:
ReplyDeleteActually, its your preference to use either ethanol or iodine, as both has sterilization and disinfecting effect. However, there have been literature papers that show that iodine is actually more efficient than ethanol as higher percentage of sterilization effect has been obtained when using iodine.
1cm slit is not big. But you are right to say that the smaller the slit, the lesser the risk of infection as more skin is intact. However, if a smaller slit is made, eg. less than 1cm, then a longer time is needed to locate, isolate and remove the testes. This increase in duration would also increase the risk of infection. And anyway, literature papers have suggested to make slits of about 1cm, so i guess that that would be the best incision size to make, for easy location and suture.
Reply to Siti:
Hey Siti! The drugs that we usually test would be plant extracts, Sildenafil and testosterone. It depends on the project to which the type of drug is admninistered: ) The reason of administrating these drugs is to test the drug's effect on testosterone levels in these castrated animals.
Hi renee!
ReplyDeleteMay i know why does the rats need to castrated in order to measure the level of testosterone? Isnt there an alternative method to determine level of testosterone in the rats?
Thanks!
Siti Hawa
0704087F
tg02
group 10
Hi Siti!
ReplyDeletesorry for the late reply.
we want to castrate the rats so that the levels of testosterone would drop to zero so that we are able to administer drugs into these castrated rats to see if they are able to produce testosterone again. It is to test is the drug is able to increase testosterone levels hen levels are low. The testosterone levels would be determined by radioimmunoassays.
Renee
TG02
0703634F