I dissected my first mouse today. Thankfully I wasn't the one who put an end to its sad and short life (the lab officers did).

It was surreal. I mean, when you first look at the carcass, it's a whole mouse, an innocent 6-8 week old Swiss albino mouse. Freshly killed, lying on the plastic plate.

Thankfully 2 of my group mates had dissected mice prior to this back in secondary school or junior college, so they weren't too squeamish. Another girl and I were just put off (initially).

First thing I did to the mouse? Pin its hind leg down to the plate with a needle. Oh the cruelties performed to mice even after they die :S And then the only guy in the group took a scissors, slit its fur coat and pulled it in opposite directions, revealing its 'inner skin' where all its innards were in plain sight for all to see. Poor mouse.

We took a syringe and injected 5ml of medium into the peritoneal cavity to loosen the macrophages. 5ml, into a small mouse's belly. The belly started bloating and then leaking (the medium of course). After another 2 or 3 more rounds, the inner skin was cut to reveal the innards. Our first look at the poor mouse's intestines and liver. And then, for purposes of the experiment, we removed the spleen (behind the liver) and the thymus (above the heart, in the process opening up the ribcage).

Poor mouse. Now you know why before the first slit was made, we said that if the mouse had a choice, it should try avoiding being a mouse again in its next life.