Rat Dissection!!!!

Ok so today we did a rat dissection. My group got a large male and man was he difficult to dissect! NOTE: MIGHT GET VISUAL/DISTURBING!!

First was to cut the skin/fur. That was tough, mostly because we had a blunt pair of scissors, however after changing them for sharp ones, the skin was still a tough cookie! After separating the skin from muscle, the skin is pinned onto the board with pins. The muscles were next and was easier to cut than the skin.

Then my instructor came by, helping us cut through some more skin and muscle and teaching us where organs were. The first thing she does, however is look for the bladder and comment on how fat the rat was. She finds it only to start a new conversation about the rat's penis. OH and how it keeps an erection through the veins in the organ. Then when she got to the testicles, she almost seemed to have a heart attack on the size of the testes and the fat content in them also. Those who know me know that I'm the type of person who avoids talk about basically anything sexual. This lab hit hard on how nurses are supposed to be the professional and comfortable about using this type of language. So... I start now... hehe... not exactly looking forward to that....

So that was it for my instructor as she rushed off to help others with frozen rats.... my group then had an awesome but gruesome time exploring the heart, lungs, intestines and bladders etc. I hardly touched the rat. Those who know me also know that I'm not the the type of person who enjoys touching anything that is dissected or relatively freshly deceased (or raw). Bull's eye in 2009? Felt the weight of it in my hand, that's it. Now I have to dig through muscles to find the lungs and write a report on it!

Today was a unique experience but... I prefer not to touch anything... Right now in my career anyway...

We are not allowed photography in labs as contamination can occur easily and respect for the animal. This blog will not have any photographs of any dissected animal. If you wish to look at some, Google Image it or something.

Don't make me touch raw stuff!
A

PS. Sorry for sounding repetitive! After a 3 hour lab then a 2 hour one 10 minutes later, I'm exhausted! This day had been every long for me and I need to be up early for another lab tomorrow morning! :\