***= Special Procedure
Focus of Procedure:
Identify the veins and arteries below the diaphragm. Understand the path of blood flow from the heart to the organs.
Materials:
-scalpel
-tweezers
-teaser needle
Procedure:
***Semara is a female cat. During this procedure the gonadal veins and arteries, which connect to the female cat's ovaries, will need to be located. Skip this step if your cat is male.
1) Review the path of blood flow from the lungs to the heart and from the heart to the organs. Understand that the veins are a blue color and the arteries are a pinkish/red color.
2) Use your scalpel to gently and carefully locate and identify the required veins and arteries. If necessary, use the teaser needle to clean off the smaller veins and arteries.
3) Open up the cat, moving the organs to the side. Start by locating the inferior vena cava and thoracic aorta. The inferior vena cava is a large, long vein that goes down vertically from the diaphragm to about the lower belly of the cat (right on the midline of the body). The thoracic aorta is an artery that is also fairly large and located in the same area. The inferior vena cava and thoracic aorta are both very easy to spot and are located directly next to each other. Take pictures.
4) Once you locate the inferior vena cava, find the Hepatic vein and artery which connect to the liver.
5) Right across from the liver is the stomach. You will notice the Hepatic vein and the Hepatic artery appear to connect from the liver to the stomach. The end of the Hepatic vein that connects to the stomach becomes the Gastric Vein. The end of the Hepatic artery that connects to the stomach becomes the Gastric Artery.
6) Directly underneath the Gastric and Hepatic vein is the Celiac trunk. The Celiac trunk is fairly small and shaped like a "y". Locate this artery and take pictures of the following: Hepatic vein, Hepatic artery, Gastric vein, Gastric artery and Celiac trunk.
7) Locate the spleen and flip the organ over, looking at the bottom of it. Try to find the splenic artery by looking for where this artery connects to the organ. You may need to clean off excess fat tissue to identify this artery. Take a picture once the splenic artery is identified.
8) Go back down to the inferior vena cava and identify the kidneys and ovaries. Locate the Renal veins and the Renal arteries, which connect to the kidneys. Locate the Gonadal veins and Gonadal arteries, which connect to the ovaries.
9) Above the right kidney is the superior mesenteric artery. Below the left kidney and left ovary is the inferior mesenteric artery. Locate both these arteries.
10) Takes pictures of the following: Renal veins, Renal arteries, Gonadal veins, Gonadal arteries, superior mesenteric artery, inferior mesenteric artery.
11) Directly below the inferior mesenteric artery, on both left and right of the cat's body, are the lliolumbar arteries and veins. The lliolumbar artery and the lliolumbar vein will be extremely close to each other and possibly be intertwined or overlapping (on each side). Take pictures of the lliolumbar veins and arteries. You can include the inferior mesenteric artery in this picture in order to illustrate the distance between the veins and arteries.
12) Go back down the thoracic aorta. If you follow the thoracic aorta all the way down the cat's stomach, you will notice this artery branches off into smaller arteries. The smallest artery that branches down the midline and continues to break into smaller arteries is called the internal iliac artery. The two arteries that branch off on the left and right are called the external iliac arteries. Follow these arteries down to the upper thigh area, and they become the femoral arteries.
13) While observing the thoracic aorta, you may notice that the inferior vena cava also branches into smaller veins. The two veins that branch off on the left and right are called the common iliac vein or external iliac vein. These veins break off into a smaller branch on each side that is directed toward the midline or center of the cat's body. These tiny branches facing the midline are the internal iliac veins. Follow external iliac veins down to the upper thigh area, and they become the femoral veins.
14) Take pictures of the following: Internal iliac artery, Internal iliac vein, External iliac artery, Common iliac vein/External Iliac vein, Femoral artery and Femoral vein.
15) Take a picture of all the veins and arteries below the diaphragm together. Take as many more pictures as you wish to take.
Data:
Semara's veins and arteries were all healthy and did not have any abnormalities. Her veins were of normal size as well as her arteries. Her veins were actually larger than her arteries. At times it was difficult to find Semara's arteries because they were incredibly small. Some of her veins and arteries were covered by fat tissue, which made it harder to find the veins and arteries. The Hepatic, Gastric and celiac trunk arteries were the hardest to find because there was tissue covering them. The external and internal iliac veins were also difficult because it was hard to decipher which was which. I had a hard time in general locating all the specific veins and arteries due to the abundance of veins and arteries below the diaphragm. Overall I would say Semara's circulatory system was in great health and functioning normally. All pictures are shown below. There will also be two pictures that illustrate the location and names of the veins and arteries above the diaphragm.
The Veins and Arteries of the Circulatory System Below the Diaphragm.
The Veins and Arteries of the Circulatory System Above the Diaphragm.
Conclusion:
Observing the veins and arteries was very interesting because I got to see how blood was carried to and from the organs. Finding the required veins and arteries was like hide and seek; some veins and arteries were right in front of you and others you had to search for. I enjoyed this process of locating all the different veins and arteries and got excited whenever I found one. At times the veins and arteries were so small that it was difficult to find them. There were also a lot of veins and arteries (it seemed) near the same organ, making it difficult for me to figure out which vein or artery was the one I needed to find. Labeling my pictures was also tricky because in a few pictures I did not know what I was looking at or I could not see where the vein or artery was. Overall I think observing the veins and arteries was very interesting. I was able to visualize the path of blood flow and definitely gained a better understanding of how the circulatory system works.
