Animals~

Today was the second day of the workshop......had to really work with the animals after learning how to restrain them yesterday.

We had to deal with mouse, rats and guinea pigs.

First of all was to use to use the oral gavage on them. This I had no problem, just gently insert the feeding tube down their esophagus, to their stomach.

Next is to anesthesize them. I chose the intraperitoneal method as shown below. I'm no so pro to use my bare hands, I hand the help of my self made restrainer from yesterday to help me.

Then it was retro-orbital bleeding, which was to draw blood from their eyes. Omg~ I just could get myself to do it. I tried after seeing everyone do it but then it felt so cruel. Yes I know, I have anesthesize the mouse  but.....

Yea I tried till I saw a tiny speck of blood and ok, that's it...I'm not taking any blood. I just need to learn the method, not gonna use the blood anyways.

Then it's cardiac puncture which I also settled at first try on the mouse. :D

Once the anesthesia has worn off, my mouse was moving around normally, which is good.

Then it was time for the rat which is btw a lot bigger than a mouse.

OMG, it was soo hard to anesthesize the rat using intravenous method via it's tail. I poked it numerous time....I got the vein a few time but the rat struggled too much. I eventually felt so bad that I decided to let the rat go so that I won't hurt it anymore. 

Hence, I did not perform anymore techniques on them. I didn't think it would be nice to keep poking them. Imagine someone poking you with a needle, how would you like it??

As for the guinea pig, the closest thing I got to doing was holding and covering them with a towel. 

The most traumatizing part has got the be the cervical dislocation to kill the mouse/ rats. I shiver every time I hear the crack. There is no way I would be able to do it.....

Overall the workshop has been very valueable and I've learnt a lot about animals. It has also helped me with my fear of mouse and rats. Another interesting part is the post mortem as its my first time seeing it performed live. 

Thank you to all the animals who have assisted in this workshop. I kept talking to them to try to get them to follow my instructions. For now, I think I will stick to cell culture....yea, definitely!!