Disecting a cat-why?

StudentSandra · Dec 18, 2002

originally posted by gonnabeanurse2
i had the same a&p instructor as student sandra above---human dissection was great!!!! what a privelage. oh by the way---thanks to sandra for all the great tutoring this past semester....and thanks for recommending this site!

you're welcome sheila, don't you wish everyone could have mr l. for an a&p instructor.

ZORYA · Dec 18, 2002

The cats most likely come from the local animal shelter or possibly a local vet university...when a person donates their animal to a vet university for "research", they(the university) usually euthanize it and sell them to local colleges...that's also what happens when a kill shelter gets overrun w/animals....

OBNurseShelley · Dec 18, 2002

In my college A&P class we did humans, one of the only ones in the midwest that do, it was an awesome experience and I will NEVER ever forget some of the things I learned, i was fortunate enough to be on the disection team, we also did rats in class but we all had our own, I can't imagine learning anything with 4:1 ratio, the camera is a good idea, but better check to make sure it's ok to take pictures.

MIKEY LIKES · Dec 18, 2002

We also had a 4:1 ratio. When someone in the group asked why cats, the instructor said that more cats were willing then humans. I think that was a joke. Strange instuctor. Anyhow, we named our cat "Socks". I got to do all the cuttin'. I don't really like cats so it was all the same to me when I was "volunteered" for the task at hand.

c.wicks · Dec 18, 2002

She was a rhesus monkey which I named Suzie. This was in a Human Anatomy course that I took before I returned to school for a nursing degree. I remember paying over $200 in lab fees and will admit that she was worth every dime. I'll never forget the day our monkeys arrived, all wrapped up in these thick plastic bags and much bigger in size than we had expected. We were receiving very graphic details from our instructor on how to handle and preserve our monkeys while disecting them over the next two months. After this, the instructor said, "OK, everybody open your bags and remove your monkeys." Hindsight tells me that this was that "golden moment" that our instructor undoudtedly anticipated every year. We heard a crash behind us and turned to see one student out cold on the floor and two others losing their lunch. What a scene, I wish you could have been there.

But then I also had a "golden moment" I'd like to share with you. The weekend before finals, we got to take our monkeys home with us to review their anatomy. You can imagine how Suzie looked after a complete dissection....not a pretty site. My roomates were not suppose to return until Monday AM, and I would have Suzie back in cold storage by then. My roomates were sisters and both were in the school of business, the sort that would scream their heads off at the sight of a mouse. I finished studying Suzie's parts about 2AM and managed to stuff her into our refridgerator before going to bed. But, as you may have guessed, they came back early that morning, just in time to make breakfast......I never heard such a commotion in all my life, I guess they must have woke up the entire campus before I could get down the stairs. They had pulled the bag out to see what was in it and Suzie just sort of fell apart on the kitchen floor. Boy, does that bring back some memories! I'm sorry, I just had to get that off my chest.

Angela_N_WA · Dec 18, 2002

I took A&P at Tacoma Community College and we had a cadaver.. I thought all schools did till i went to Everett CC and heard about CATS!!!! Yikes :chuckle

Angela

ava'smomRN · Jan 28, 2003

i have to do a cat dissection soon. is it hard to identify the organs, veins and muscles?

nessa1982 · Jan 28, 2003

My Junior College didnt have human bodies because the school didnt have a cadver fridge (I guess you cant just store it next to the regular food huh??). Im not huge kitty fan (massive allergy) but our cat has this nasty expression on his face, like he had been beaten to death or somethin'. Oh well I named him Mr. Bigglesworth, laughed at the worms in his stomach and got an A :)

PsychoRN · Jan 28, 2003

We had cadavers when I took A&P. I don't see how you can learn the human body by disecting a cat.

vettech · Jan 28, 2003

Originally posted by OBNURSEHEATHER
LMAO!

Seriously, 4:1 is a crappy kitty experience! Even in high school we had a 2:1! As Thendar suggested, volunteer to be the one doing the disecting. My experience has been that everyone would be more than happy to let you do it, and you'll get more up close and personal.

I loved disecting that cat! I hate cats!

Heather

We have 4:1 in AP2 (taking it now, in an hour and a half in fact), but we had 2:1 in Veterinary A&P.

I like cats but, yeah, the evil side kicks in... when I see that cat on the table I see every cat that has bit or scratched me.

We had to name our cats. My instructor commented that I'd picked "a rather scraggly one" so her name is "Scrag".

Vet A&P we had a big orange-tabby male, named it "Rigor Morris". :chuckle

vettech · Jan 28, 2003

Originally posted by prmenrs
I did a cat once. They bear NO RESEMBLANCE to any cat I've EVER known or loved. They have pickled in Formalin, and are somewhat boardlike in look and feel. They are also HUGE!!

They also "keep" for the amount of time you'll need to work on it for various body systems.

A much better experience, in my opinion, were the freshly euthanized mice/rats I dissected another time. There was very much less odor (they used chloroform to kill them), and the organs were much easier to see, esp in relationship to one another. Because they had just died, they were still lifelike in appearance and feel.

Given my druthers, the mouse was better.

Yeah, but the veins and arteries are harder to isolate. I've done a few myself, but mine were necropsies in my practice.

vettech · Jan 28, 2003

Originally posted by ntigrad
In high school biology we dissected rats crawdads, worms, frogs, mussels and fetal pigs. Here I am in LPN school and we don't do any of that. I know LPN knowledge base isn't as deep as RN, but you would think we still could benefit from dissecting soemthing. My RN sister in law had a sheeps brain to take home with her to work on, and a cows eye. Do any of you have that yet? I personally was dissappointed that we wouldn't be doing any of that. And YES 4:1 is too many to do any learning on IMHO. :)
Jill

My class is the first to skip the cow's eye but we each got half a sheep's brain. The weekend before the test I took mine with me to the clinic to study and got the obvious joke thrown at me, "Hey Ed, nice to see you finally have half a brain!" :)