Pregnant Cat!

We were fairly certain that one of cats was pregnant, but we were stunned to find out it wasn't the one we expected. Keith and Wesley were curious about what appeared to be their cat's very large colon. Upon further inspection they deduced that these were the greatly enlarged uterine horns with four fetuses growing inside!

Next, began the process of opening the uterine horns.

We found out the lumps inside were mainly composed of placenta. A little internet research let us know that feline placentas are a little different than human placentas. The feline placenta surrounds the whole embryo and helps it anchor the embryo in its position in the uterine tube.

Below, the embryo is exposed, but is still inside its amniotic sac. Our research indicated that the mother was probably 2-3 weeks into an 8.5 week pregnancy. Compare this picture to an ontogeny diagram like the one Ernst Haekel created (fraudulently...but your going to have to do your own Google search for that story).

In the final photo the placenta and sac have been removed from the embryo. We have identified where the eye is forming under the skin.

Whaddya mean, I gotta learn all this stuff?

It can't be all fun and games. During class we do have to identify the structures we are dissecting and try to remember their locations. Often the diagrams in the packet, the book and the cat in front of us don't match up.

After nearly a week working on the muscular system we finally cut in to the abdominal cavity of our cats. The liver, stomach, small and large intestines were readily visible. Hidden or more difficult to find a this point are the reproductive organs and the urinary system.

After removing the intestines we exposed the kidneys. They are pushed up against the back muscles.

JP holds a kidney he and Titus just removed from their cat.

Here is the same kidney bisected.

And, in what has become part of the daily ritual with our cats, DeMarco sprays his cat with Carosafe. We use the preservative mainly to keep the cats from drying out. The muscles start to get sinewy after being exposed to the air for this long. Additionally, it helps prevent any rot or mold from happening.

Feline Day 3

We are still working on the upper limb musculature. It has been slow going, but we have completed the upper arm and chest, and are looking carefully at the shoulder joint. Many of us were surprised to learn that there is no skeletal connection for the arm and shoulder to our axial skeleton. Our arms and shoulders are held to our bodies by only muscles, ligaments and tendons.

As always, click on the photo for a more detailed view.

Introducing Doctor Dissector

Part man. Part physiologist. Doctor Dissector has been surprising A & P classes in the St. Louis metro area. Only one grainy photo has been taken of this mysterious person. He seems to be wearing a yellow cape, baseball cap, and what seems to be high school uniform pants and polo. His motives are as much a mystery as his identity. It is rumored that he mutated due to exposure to preservative fluids in his laboratory (where he was supposedly working on the formula for "pure awesomeness"). Hero or villain, we know not. Until his identity is confirmed authorities are recommending you not approach Doctor Dissector.

Beware, and by all means be safe!

The only known image of Doctor Dissector.

Muscle identification

We began the process of separating and learning the names of each individual muscle in the chest and upper arm. Many were hesitant to get started today for fear of tearing the muscles or making an improper cut. We learned that by working on only one side of the body we preserve the other side in the event that we make a mistake.

I think many of us are just starting to understand what an in-depth process the cat dissection is going to be. There is so much to learn!

We placed the tools under the superficial muscles to show how we separated them from the more internal muscles.

The triceps has been transected (cut in half through the body of the muscles) exposing deeper muscles.

There is more than one way to skin a cat

...but there is only one way to do it in Anatomy & Physiology class, and that is according to the procedure described in the Advanced Placement Mammalian Structure and Function manual. Needless to say, this is a pretty unique experience for most students!

(Warning! Viewer discretion is advised. The following images may contain disturbing, graphic photographs of cats being skinned.)

DeMarco and Alexis prepare to open the "body bag."

Keith empties his bag of some of the extra preservative juices.

Quindarryl makes his first incision precisely.

Kenny and Ariane work carefully to not cut deeper than the dermis. The goal is to keep all the muscles in pristine condition. We have a lot of muscle to find and don't want them hacked up.

Most of the pink tissue you can see in this photo is not meat (aka muscle tissue). It is most likely fat. You will also notice the well developed mammillary pappillae, or teats, on this cat. We suspect that she was pregnant and near her delivery date at the time of death. This cat will probably provide an interesting dissection opportunity.

Fin!

An article from resident blogger Amanda Reed

My Summer in Anatomy

Wow!! This was the first word that came to mind when I found out that I was taking anatomy for the summer. I just knew we weren’t going to really get involved with all the dissecting because the summer was short, but boy was I wrong. All my classmates laughed and made jokes because I was pregnant during the time the class was assigned. And as we all know being pregnant is one thing, but having to take Anatomy is another. Our first dissection was a pig. Yes, a PIG! We had a choice to work alone or in groups of two to three other dissectors. I personally work better alone but this was different, I’d rather work with others for these projects. We had set directions on what the procedure was and when it was all over, questions about what we learned. See I had it easy. My role was to be the writer and record all the information that was important. During this process we learned about the skin and different body parts to help us cut the right parts. We worked on this dissection for 5 days and everyday was more and more interesting.

Now we are in the third week of 5^th term and our last dissection is a cat. Not little cats, but very large cats. Mr. Shields only laughed when I complained about the pigs because the cats were even worst. The smell was the worst, then comes the actually cat itself. There was no way I could last in this class for two more weeks so I was assigned to be the blogger and take pictures. Today is the first day with the cats. The teams are skinning today and getting to know their cats personally. And we found out that one of our cats is pregnant! This was a surprise to everyone, even Mr. Shields. That’s all for today!

I’ll keep you posted on all the good news within these last two weeks!

(A note from Mr. Shields: Don’t kid yourselves. Amanda will be doing more than blogging. Don’t take a dissection class if you don’t want to dissect!)

Day 1 - Introduction to microscopes

As we began our study of anatomy and physiology we had a quick refresher course on the use of microscopes. All of these skills will serve us well when we begin a more in depth study of tissues while conducting our dissections.

Day 2 - Physical Exam & Dissection

DeMarco prepares to do a thorough external physical examination of his "victim."

If you don't tie them down they might get away!

Our first dissection is being done in the fashion of an autopsy. Working in pairs, the class noted all the physical characteristics of their fetal pigs (looking for any obvious signs of trauma). Next, the "forensic pathologist" of the group made a y-shaped incision to begin the internal examination of the body.

Day 3 - The Abdominal Cavity

If you look carefully, Titus, Wesley (pictured out of uniform), and Kenny are holding the small intestine from a single fetal pig. The small intestine was nearly 3 meters long!

Mmm. Mmm. Good.

Unfortunately, as we really got into dissecting our pigs picture taking fell to the wayside. For some reason I didn't want to get out my camera phone while my gloves were dripping with preservative fluid and chunks of tissue.

After we lifted the chest plate off, each group removed the chest cavity organs. Each organ was then separated, weighed, and described. We cut the heart into a saggital section and examined the chambers and heart valves. We eventually compared the fetal heart to a full sized pig heart. Adult pig hearts are enormous!

Each group cut a cross section of the lung and observed the the small bronchioles that deliver air to the deepest recesses of the lung.

An assortment of fetal pig organs at the end of the dissection. All of the organs were carefully placed back in the body prior to stitching closed our incision.
(Click the pic to see it all in greater, gory detail!)

Final Steps

As in any good autopsy our pathologists carefully placed each organ back in its proper position. The next challenge was baseball stitching closed our y-shaped incision.

With all the preservative fluids emptied out, our pigs were much skinnier than when we began. We soon learned that a few in the class were not destined for careers as surgeons. Some of our post mortem stitching seemed to resemble the work of Dr. Frankenstein. (Pictures have been omitted to protect the identities and egos!)