Dissect a cat?!

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Ok, I know I'm a wuss but if any of you have had to do this for an A&P class, how did you survive? I almost think I could chuck my whole career decision to avoid having to do this. Almost.

Any advice? :uhoh21:

Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

https://allnurses.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1285466&postcount=88

This is my post on that thread. Just for grins.

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HI. This is semi related.

I am a nursing student now in the LPN program and didn't hear anything in A&P about a cat.. Crossing fingers for no..

But 3 years back I took veterinary assisting. It was great and my teacher worked at on of long islands best emergency animal hospitals. Well one night she brought in an amputated German Shepard Leg. This thing was a male, hug back leg. It was the freakiest thing, with all of the fur on it. The leg was intact, the paw was there. I couldn't get over it. But once she removed the hair and cut into it I could look and get over it. Also knowing the dog was still alive and had to get the leg removed helped me accept it alot too.

Good luck to you

Tracy

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From what I understand, this is common practice in many nursing schools, including the one I graduated from. We had to dissect in groups, and although I did watch, I never actually touched the cat. As it happens, I'm severely allergic and my allergist said absolutely not to handling the cat. Also, I'm an animal lover too, so I had a really hard time just watching.

We later had to dissect pig embryos. Couldn't get out of that one and just hated it. :o Glad it's all over.

Well, actually is has been for a while, but we won't go into just how long.... :p

Donna

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Specializes in Operating Room.

We didn't disect a cat for A&P 1 and in A&P 2, there were cats already dissected for us to view.

However, I have dissected a cat before....when I was pregnant with my first child.

I thought of it as an amazing adventure. I'd rather an animals be used as learning experiences, than to be out on the streets getting ran over! :barf02:

There was one thread like this already, which the link was given to you already. Most people said, suck it up, and do what you have to do. My suggestion was just that, but I also stated on the previous post that a tree could be planted in the cat's honor, if it makes you feel better.

However, if you feel that strongly against it, you could ask your instructor, dean, etc about not having to do it. (Maybe your lab partner could do the dissecting, and you could just watch & learn.)

Good luck.

Ok, I know I'm a wuss but if any of you have had to do this for an A&P class, how did you survive? I almost think I could chuck my whole career decision to avoid having to do this. Almost.

Any advice? :uhoh21:

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I'm all for watching. I could do that easily. I don't have a total aversion to it being done by others in my group or an instructor but me personally I'm just kind of blech about it. But, if it came down to it, I'd just suck it up. Such is life! I never thought I could change a poopy baby butt without gagging either and now I change about 3 a day with one hand tied behind my back... :rotfl:

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https://allnurses.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1285466&postcount=88

This is my post on that thread. Just for grins.

great advice and so true!

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I thought I would be really grossed out by dissecting a cat, but it was the smell that got to me more than anything. I hate that formaldehyde smell.

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Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.

Most of the time there is no way around the dissection. I am a huge animal lover and needless to say I MUST do this. The animal is already dead, and NO you did not contribute for it's killing. This happens all the time in the kill shelters.

Best wishes to you.

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I thought my animal dissection was completely worthless in my Human A&P. I prefered the cadaver lab or the ADAM labs.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
Ok, I know I'm a wuss but if any of you have had to do this for an A&P class, how did you survive? I almost think I could chuck my whole career decision to avoid having to do this. Almost.

Any advice? :uhoh21:

We paired up and dissected cats in my Anatomy class 32 years ago. We had a book I believe was called the Atlas of Cat Anatomy for reference. For each lab there were certain body systems of the cat that we were to examine. The instructor was very good about helping us dissect various structures in the animal so we could see them clearly--especially smaller structures that were harder to find. I always took a fresh pair of rubber gloves to class with me (they may provide those now, I don't know). I also wore older clothes on lab days because I didn't want the smell of the formaldehyde to get into my regular clothes. I also had a little kit I put together with some cuticle scissors for cutting small things and long handled tweezers. You might want to wear either a lab coat or an apron as well so you don't get any fluids on you. You might want to put a pocket size bottle of hand sanitizer in your pocket as well. The providers of these cadavers inject something into the veins and arteries so they show up as red or blue. We had an oral exam where we took our cat to the instructor and asked questions where we had to point out certain anatomical structures in the animal or explain the working of a particular organ or organ system while showing where it was located. We gave our cat a name, Mr. Whiskers. I've heard that medical students working on human cadavers also do the same.

I treated my cat with respect and approached the whole idea of dissection very seriously. There will always be some who want to giggle, laugh, display the animal in "compromising" or funny positions, etc. You just have to ignore them. Hopefully, if the instructor sees that happening he/she will say something. I think that if you start off thinking this is going to be a horrible thing, you will miss the benefit of what you are supposed to learn. In a class setting you have an opportunity and time to examine what a muscle or a tendon looks like, what intestine looks like, etc. You may never have the opportunity to see these things in a human. This is just one more educational tool to have in your box of facts to help you put together how disease impacts us. Cats being mammals have many structures that are very similar to humans. If you're lucky you might get a female who was pregnant or a cat with some organ disease which you will be able to see. I believe these cats come from humane societies that euthanise the overpopulation of cats.

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And here I thought "more than one way to skin a cat" was just an expression.. :mad:

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Specializes in Operating Room.
I treated my cat with respect and approached the whole idea of dissection very seriously. There will always be some who want to giggle, laugh, display the animal in "compromising" or funny positions, etc. You just have to ignore them. Hopefully, if the instructor sees that happening he/she will say something.

I agree with Dayonite, but wanted to comment on the mishandling from other students.

Some may do stupid things from immaturity, others may have to do stupid things to keep from getting sick. So, just like Dayonite says, just ignore them.

I just treated my cat like a science project...something that would advance my knowledge. I think seeing the real thing is better than pictures. :)

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