Today I got to do a triple catheterization procedure (the jugular vein, carotid artery, and urinary bladder) on a rat. It took about an hour, and it went smoothly, until I realized at the end that the rat had died. Haha, oops. There was very little blood loss from the procedure, so we figured that the oxygen must have been set too low. Oh well, it was a good learning experience.
The most noteworthy/comical thing I did today, however, was to perform CPR on a rat (not the same rat from my procedure). To anesthetize the rats, we use isoflorane, and this poor rat knocked over a little bucket of it over its head. It stopped breathing almost immediately, and after intubating the rat, we tried to revive it, but failed. We called it an anesthetic death. Unfortunate, and expensive. All in all, each of these rats costs the lab about 100 dollars, so if you ever donate money for research, you know where it's going.
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You have the weirdest, funniest rat stories. Too bad you didn't have to do mouth-to-mouth. THAT would have been Gaaaaross!!!
ReplyDeleteI actually found myself laughing out loud in a sick sadistic way at the demise of your poor rats today. Better luck tomorrow - aren't you glad you are practicing on rats first? Haha.
ReplyDeleteCool. I think I should become a rat provider for medical research... seems there's money in them thar rodents. BTW, rumors are zipping around the internet that the rats of the world harbor a collective and well-placed fear of TheMitt.
ReplyDeleteA random quote that made me laugh:
ReplyDelete"A mouse is an animal that, if killed in sufficiently many and creative ways, will generate a PhD."
This should be your mantra.
Haha, that's a great quote!
ReplyDelete