Just found this link, a system for teaching you to do stitches. Not something I thought about but now that i'm looking there are a variety of option that are cheaper, funny how you find your blind spots. www.trueskinsuturekit.com
The most difficult sutures I have had to do were rectum prolapse sutures. I have had to do that procedure at least a dozen times now. Piglets between 5 weeks and 10 weeks are very prone to popping their entire colon right out.
I sewed up my stupid dog. Twice. With sewing needle and dental floss, ghetto style. She literally picked the worst possible time to cut her self on a stick she was playing with, Sunday night before reserve week, I was getting ready to leave and I hear "the dogs bleeding" and I'm like "WTF really" I realistically had no time to resolve the situation. After the second time she learned, do stupid shit and the big guy sits on you and jams a needle through your skin, over and over.
When AlaskaChick was in Nursing School she practiced on Oranges and ripe Bananas... She would make two inch long cuts, and the use a Hospital Suture Kit and stitch them closed, on the oranges... then on the bananas she did both horizontal and vertical cuts, and turned in the best ones for grading... If any of the inner fruit was showing, the grade would be lowered.. After about two days of practice she got pretty good, and received an A on that excersize element... The nursing School she attended was very progressive, and taught many of the skill sets, that were not typical for Nurses, back in that day, but useful for Nurses that practiced independently, out in the bush of Alaska...
My fall back has been butterfly bandages and or super glue. The less you have to intrude in the skin the better. I also use colloidal silver to cleanse the area. I prefer silver to alcohol because alcohol kills skin cells and is not good for the body, silver on the other hand is beneficial in the short term and the long run. I keep curved needles I made and monofilament in my EDC. What I use only self is my business.
