Surgical Management of Abortion in a Rat

The gestation period of rats is on average 21 to 23 days. Conceptus can be detected by ultrasonography after the 8‐9th days of the pregnancy. The total number of fetuses per pregnancy is 1 to 20. In some cases, abortion occurs depending on many etiological factors, and it is the most common complication of pregnancy. The subject of the present case report was the surgical management of spontaneous abortion using inhalation anesthesia in a rat. The material of the case report was a female albino 2‐year‐ old rat weighing about 450 gr. The rat was admitted with vaginal bleeding and abortion in to the clinic. In anamnesis, it was reported that a pup was stillborn about three hours ago and then no other pup was delivered. Furthermore, it was informed that there was ongoing vaginal bleeding since the last 4‐5 hours. Upon physical examination and ultrasonography, the case was diagnosed as abortion. It was decided to intervene with the abortion by surgery. The rat was premedicated subcutaneously with atropine sulphate and general anesthesia was induced with isoflurane through inhalation. Then, celiotomy was performed at cauda umbilicus. In total, 13 non viable fetuses were removed from both uterine horns. Incision wounds were sutured and the rat was evenly awakened from anesthesia and discharged. In conclusion, surgical management of the abortion case using inhalation anesthesia was successfully performed on the rat.