rat dissection time...!!!

yesterday, our bio group, 173 had our first ever lab session for this semester. we're a bit over excited the week before when our lecturer told us that the experiment would involve dissecting a mammal (usually, they use rat labs). too eager to crack that rat open.haha. really looking forward to this..

at the beginning of our class, we fetch our apparatus and rat, one each. it was a bit shocking when we knew we had to do this experiment independently. just then, the lab assistant brought in a container; looked more like a garbage bin, then, we're told to go to the front and fetch our rats each. I reached in the bin hoping to get a large sized rat, seeing that it may be a bit easy managing larger rats instead of smaller ones. really satisfied to be able to grab up the largest rat amongst all. a male rat. put it in my dissecting tray, then went back to my seat.


I've just finished embedding one limb of that mammal to the tray when suddenly, its whole body started to shake. at first i just ignored the abnormality. then,when i was about to pin another limb, it pulled away it's limb. that time i was totally sure that "haih, tak cukup chloroform nih!!!! "....haha. the lab assistant told me to go and throw that rat into the chloroform bin again one more time. i went to the front, throw it into the bin, and waited a couple of minutes. then, went to fetch it again. my second trial to pin all the limbs was a success!! felt glad,..really. but, suddenly, it's body started shaking again....what the..??!what, could i just cut it open??!! then, my lecturer told me that the rat must be re'chloroformed' one more time....after like 5 minutes then, my rat was completely half dead i guest.haha.




since i've wasted like 10 minutes of my time with this rat problem, my other classmates were halfway making their way to access the abdominal cavity of their rats. i had to do mine fast. so, mine was a bit messy. then, after we had recognized all parts, we moved up to the chest cavity. broke open the ribs and we're able to see the heart, lungs and such....then, we had to break the jaws and insert a tube to pump in air into the trachea to see the lungs fluctuate. i've tried so hard to access the tube from the mouth, but the lungs wont fluctuate when air was pumped in. then, i just cut up the trachea and connect the tube directly from the cut up section. hahah, it worked man!!! the lungs contracted and relaxed as air was drawn in and out. it was so beautiful!! subhanallah!!! then,.....after having SO MUCH FUN destroying our rats, disposing time.....

forget to mention, the smell was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY ugly....haha.