11/5

Week 11 of 16 is practically half-way over!  Today I had my feline cadaver lab.  In this lab we had three procedures to practice:

onchyectomy (aka declaw): removing the tips of the cats paws in order to remove the claws on cats that are aggressive or that are scratching up the furniture.  It is the same as having the tips of our fingers cut off at the very last knuckle.

deep digital flexor tenectomy: cutting a piece of the ligament that allows the cat to expose their claws.  This way, the cats whole toe stays intact but the cat cannot extend its claws out of its pads.  Used for the same reasons as the declaw procedure.

subcutaneous lumpectomy: removing masses that are located just beneath the skin.

Our cat that we had happened to be an intact male.  Since myself and another of our group mates had never neutered a cat, we each got to try it.  It's really not hard at all once I figured out how to tie the spermatic cord onto itself. 

Tomorrow is another long day with five hours of lecture followed by two hours of dentistry lab.  These long days are killer but they really do go by quite fast!