What did/do you dissect in A&P lab?

ToyaB · Aug 22, 2013

I dissected a cow's eye, an animal heart (unsure which animal), and fetal pigs. OMG cadavers in A&P?? :nailbiting: How did you guys deal with that? Anyone faint?? LOL! I dont think I would have been prepared for that during prerequisites. I would had to have really had way advanced notice and had to prepare myself for that. (How do you prepare to cut open a human body??) Especially cutting into one and removing the brain???? I'm screaming inside just thinking of it. :arghh:

I can deal with the living and recently dead, but tearing into a dead one:eek:... put a cushion behing me now! I'm going down!!! :dead:

slc1984 · Aug 22, 2013

Cats, cow heart, sheep eye/brain... the cat was by far the worst. In advanced anatomy the cat I got had been declawed which broke my heart. It was obviously some ones pet at some point. Our teacher also made sure to order a pregnant cat so we could be privy to that little slice of heaven. Sick. I wish it had been dead people.

16mm · Aug 22, 2013

fetal pig, sheep's brain, kidney & heart, cows eye

cass1320 · Aug 22, 2013

I did a cadaver also. I was in a group of 5 and we had one cadaver to ourselves. We dissected the entire body, and got to use the bone saw, etc. for the hemi-sections. We had two 4 hour labs a week to do the dissections and open lab every day from 4-9pm. I probably spent at least 18 hours a week just in the lab.

If you've never gotten to do a human cadaver dissection before, you're really missing out. I wont lie, it's gross and smelly and more than a little disturbing, but it's also helped me so much through nursing school.

Irish_Mist, BSN, RN · Aug 22, 2013

We had cats that had been euthanized in shelters. As an animal advocate it was rather heartbreaking. People were like "They gave their lives for science." Um, no, they didn't, they were murdered because somewhere along the line some ignorant jerk didn't spay/neuter their cat/s. I would prefer the human cadaver, who did in fact donate their body for the purpose of study. That's just me, and this is why I am not a veterinarian. But you do it, regardless of whatever they put in front of you to study, because that's why you are there.

I'm with you on this, lorirn2b. I am a huge animal lover and advocate and the thought of having to dissect a cat breaks my heart. I am taking A&P1 this semester. As of now, I don't think we are dissecting a cat.

CT Pixie, BSN, RN · Aug 22, 2013

Fetal pig in A&P for community college, as well as cow eye, sheep brain. In my RN program A&P we didn't dissect anything (thankfully!).

Jaynie_Marie · Aug 22, 2013

A cow eye, sheep brain, sheep heart, sheep kidney, and something else that I can't remember right now. My instructor for the course is a vet (he works primarily with farm animals) so he has access to animal parts at a decent price.

NottaSpringChik, BSN, RN · Aug 22, 2013

Fetal pigs. They had the major arteries filled with red dye and the major veins filled with blue dye. Also sheep hearts and sheep brains. Our school (community college) also had three human cadavers, but we didn't dissect them. We just looked at them already dissected. We weren't supposed to be allowed to touch anything but our instructor asked who wanted to touch and then left the room with the understanding we could touch. I wanted to touch the lungs. They were so heavy and firm!! I guess I thought they'd be like foam or something.

Caribbean Character · Aug 22, 2013

A fetal pig and a sheep eyeball. We were supposed to dissect a cow heart, but there was a problem with the shipment.

EmilysMama · Aug 23, 2013

First week. A Potato.

We will also do a brain, eye and rat.

Jaynie_Marie · Aug 23, 2013

First week. A Potato.
We will also do a brain, eye and rat.

You dissected a potato?! Ok, first of all - thats awesome!! Second, why? for what purpose?

EmilysMama · Aug 23, 2013

Lol, yep a potato in APHY 101. We were given a list of several cuts so we can learn anatomical planes and such.. Like make a lateral cut superior to to the medial incision, then label.. stuff like that. Then we had to come to the conclusion as to why it "died"

ETA: My red potato, "Kali" was quite large, and had skin missing all over it. So I said that my potato died from sepsis due to a staph infection from her bedsores because her morbid obesity made her unable to get out of bed.