Description of surgical technique in rabbit cannulation for obtaining cecal content

Abstract

Fistulae and cannula placement techniques have been developed in the majority of domestic animals to know how the various nutrients are used in the digestive system, nevertheless, in rabbits, the descriptions of these procedures are few and incomplete. The aim of this study was to describe a surgical cannulation technique, using a medical grade lateral silicone cannula fixed at the 13^th cecal loop in order to obtain cecal content; for this purpose 20 rabbits were used. It was found that lateral fixation of the cannula using a silicon cannula at the 13^th cecal loop allows easy sample collection without suspending the animal, placed in a hammock.