----start------ there are pigs upstairs. so now we're getting to see pig anatomy. smallwood occasionally has diversions into the pig, and ch 34-38 in Dyce are on the pig. we can take a look at those. obviously this is totally unscheduled. first of all, the external jugular is deep to a very thick platysma, so venipuncture of that vein would be very difficult, and you do the vena cava instead. also there is no nuchal ligament, it is instead like the cat. don't do muscular dissection. look at gi, gut, genitourinary... there is a pharyngeal diverticulum which is dorsal to the esophagus. this is potentially clinically important because if you try to medicate the pig by mouth you could put the meds in the diverticulum instead of the esophagus if you aren't careful. the thorax is unusual. the lungs go very far back, and actually lie outside of abdominal viscera for some distance. inguinal and scrotal hernias are common in pigs, their inguinal canals are quite large. GI: this is not a ruminant. has a simple stomach, but there is a diverticulum on the fundus of the stomach. pigs are omnivores. the ascending colon because they are omnivores they do eat a lot of plant material the ascending colon is a spiral in a cone shape and then goes back in another spiral inside the first spiral cone. see the picture in smallwood or dyce. the outer or centripetal coil (inbound, opposite of cow) is sacculated, with two bands. the inner or centrifugal coil is outbound, opposite of cow, and is smooth. you could suture sacculated to smooth and skip part if you were doing surgery. the CECUM is of course before the ascending spiral colon. it is unusual because it is large and it lies on the left side of the pig. it's ventral to the descending colon. the coil of the spiral colon is attached to the dorsal body wall, btw. so it goes from dorsal to ventral. urogenital: sow has 7 pairs of mammary glands, and one of the common surgeries is a caesarian delivery, in which case the cut is made dorsal to the abdominal mammary glands. abdominal wall muscles are flabby and hard to suture so you need to suture the fibrous layers between muscles. the ovaries are freely mobile in fact they are so mobile you may find them both lying against the same body wall. the uterus is again an unusual structure. it has very long horns, maybe a meter long, pigs have large litters of 8-10 piglets so... the uterus has a short body and a long cervix as well. cervix can be 25 cm long. the bladder in the pig is entirely in the abdomen. male urogenital tract:the scrotum is just below the anus, more like a cat than other animals we've seen. the inguinal passage is large in diameter so hernias even into the scrotum are fairly common. most pigs - males- are castrated young because the presence of the testes affects the way the meat tastes. pet pigs are often castrated too because of smell and rowdiness. sex glands in male esp intact male are large. try to see them if we have boars. the vesicular gland is quite large, the bulbourethral gland is very large, in the intact male theseglands may touch eachother along the dorsal surface of the urethra. the prostate gland is comparatively small, partly disseminated in wall of urethra and not even seen externally.the thick urethralis muscle is around the urethra. prostate is ventral to the vesicular gland. the penis as in the ox or goat is a fibroelastic penis. it has a corkscrew twist in it as well as the sigmoid flexure common to all fibroelastic penises. there is also a diverticulum in the prepuce of the pig's penis which is dorsal to the free end of the penis and in which the tip of the penis may sometimes become entrapped so the poor pig can't get it out of there :(. that's about it on the pigs. these are fresh animals, not fixed. oh, also, the kidneys, unlike other animals, are side by side and kind of dorsoventrally compressed. they lie against the dorsal body wall - right kidney doesn't touch the liver. they aren't staggered like usually - they lie NEXT TO each other. ----end--------