Large or Food Animal and Equine Medicine Commons^™

Using A Co2 Surgical Laser For Piglet Castration To Reduce Pain And Inflammation, And To Improve Wound Healing, A. V. Viscardi, C. A. Cull, M. D. Kleinhenz, S. Montgomery, A. Curtis, K. Lechtenberg, J. F. Coetzee

Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports

The objectives of this preliminary study were to determine the ability of a CO₂surgical laser to 1) reduce pain, 2) reduce inflammation, and 3) improve wound healing of piglets undergoing surgical castration. Two-day old male Yorkshire × Landrace piglets were used and randomly assigned to one of three treatments (n= 10 piglets/treatment group): surgical castration with the CO₂laser, surgical castration with a scalpel, or sham (uncastrated control). Piglets were video recorded in their pens for 1 h pre-procedure and from 0-2, 6-8, and at 24 h post-procedure for behavior scoring. Surgical site images were …