Skinning The Kitty!!

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ok i think i'll be ok with disecting the cat in anatomy it's the skinning party i'm afraid of. is it like slaughtering it with like blood everywhere or does it come frozen or how is it??

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Specializes in Perinatal, Education.

No blood--they are preserved. We had a refrigerator in the class and they were put back in after each session. There was "cat lube" in bottles to keep them moist. I LOVE cats and did OK. It was very interesting.

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Specializes in cardiac med-surg.

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

The cat I dissected bore absolutely NO resemblence to a real live cat. First of all, it was HUGE. It was preserved in formalin, w/front and rear legs fully extended. S/he (can't remember which after all these years) was a lot like a piece of wood.

If you get to dissect a freshly euthanized small animal, like a rat/mouse, you will actually learn a lot more. I did.

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Specializes in PICU.

i did it in HS. the vessels had this colored gel in it ... i think that was the worst part. i also wasn;t a fan of the smell, but we all put vicks under our noses. GOOD LUCK!!!

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Specializes in CNA, RN Student.

What subject is this for? Do I have yet to look forward to this in any nursing class? I can't understand where it fits in. I'm scared. LOL. At first I thought this was a dirty post LOL--and was shocked when I read through it. Hee Hee.

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What subject is this for? Do I have yet to look forward to this in any nursing class? I can't understand where it fits in. I'm scared. LOL. At first I thought this was a dirty post LOL--and was shocked when I read through it. Hee Hee.

It's for anatomy and physiology but other postings as well as my teacher explained that the kitties are very preserved and there's no blood. wasn't really the blood that would bother me i just thought i was gonna be like slaughtering this thing and it was going to look like it was right out of a horror flick but everyone seems to be ok with it. :-)

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.

I am a huge lover of cats, and remember being very bothered by the thought that I'd have to dissect one. Truthfully, it wasn't bad. Like one of the previous posters said, it really doesn't even look like a cat; it was more like a piece of wood. We even named it Bill. I learned a lot about A&P doing this. I think you'll be fine.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

Yep, not too bad. I also am fond of my cats, but didn't have a problem. Of course, it helped that I found it very interesting.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I just thought of this: I did my A&P at Community College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas. One day (cat lab day), the air conditioning was on the fritz and whew - the smell still clings to me.

However, like someone else says, there is little resemblance to a real cat. These things are huge! I've never seen a cat this big. It took two of use to pull it out of the fridge in its pan.

Definitely doable.

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Specializes in Peds, PICU, Home health, Dialysis.
I just thought of this: I did my A&P at Community College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas. One day (cat lab day), the air conditioning was on the fritz and whew - the smell still clings to me.

However, like someone else says, there is little resemblance to a real cat. These things are huge! I've never seen a cat this big. It took two of use to pull it out of the fridge in its pan.

Definitely doable.

Eeewww.. I can only imagine the smell you had to endure! :barf02:

I never actually had to dissect a cat. The head guys of the Biology department felt that there were other animals that were more beneficial to dissect than the cat. We dissected very large pigs in our A&P II lab. Apparently the anatomy of a pig resembles that of humans more than a cat? That is from the mouth of our lab TA's, so I have no idea to the truth in that. Other than the pig, we stuck with human models -- I am glad A&P I & II are over and behind me! :)

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

The advantage to the cat was that it lasted all semester--you could work on a different system every week.

Both times I took A&P, we also did a chloroformed rat. We just made a Y-incision and folded back the skin, didn't actually remove the skin.

I remember more from that one session than all the other ones w/that stupid cat.

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