Determination of Testicular Blood Flow in Camelids Using Vascular Casting and Color Pulsed-Wave Doppler Ultrasonography
Figure 2
Vascular casting of caudal abdominal aorta from a fertile six-year-old male alpaca. This male had sired many offspring and had recently produced pregnancies. Under general anesthesia, the abdominal aorta and caudal vena cava were cannulated near the origin of testicular artery and insertion of the testicular vein, respectively. The alpaca was then euthanized under anesthesia by exsanguination and Batson’s no. 17 casting resin (red for arterial and blue for venous) injected through the abdominal aorta and caudal vena cava cannulas using a peristaltic pump. The pelvic region was dissected away from the cadaver and then placed into a 6% potassium hydroxide solution for 72 hours at room temperature to remove any remaining tissue. The left (L) renal artery (bottom arrow), right (R) testicular artery (top arrow), and the termination of the abdominal aorta are shown. cm.
