Certified

After 2 days of lecture and 1 full day of practical, I am now officially certified to do animal research in Singapore. Today’s practical was totally happening.. ooh..

The regulations to animal research are getting very strict, and researchers are strictly required to complete this course old and young alike, before we can even step into the animal facilities. As a result, the class had a whole range of participants, from students (like me) to post-docs to professors. It’s a good thing though, that regulations are getting so strict, coz that means we’re putting more considerations into the animals, and always reminded that the opportunity to use them as models is a privilege, not something that we can take as granted for.

Comparing the biopolis animal facility to that of NUS, I must say I am thoroughly impressed at the care and effort they put in. Firstly, it doesn’t smell. Secondly, everyone stepping into the facility is prepped just like a surgeon walking into an operating theatre! Indeed, we’re taught to treat the animals just like human patients. Just the footwear.. we have to step on this sticky mat to remove dust from our shoes, then put on a shoe cover, walk in to remove our shoes and put on a foot cover, put on in-house shoes, and put on a cover on those shoes. Then we have to change out of our clothes into green scruffs, totally like surgeons! But we have one more step than surgeons. We have another disposable gown put over those scruffs! Of course, shower cap, face mask and gloves are put on too. (and I am really impressed with surgeons.. coz after putting on the face mask I have difficulty breathing! I was so worried I’d faint before the mice do >.<)

First animal we worked on was the mouse. This was easy, as I have handled mice before. Nonetheless, that was 5 years ago, and I am abit rusty. Also, at that time, I worked under non-sterile conditions, and only learnt liver ligation (some open surgery experiment lah). Today, we learnt a lot of things, from anesthesia to various types of injections to various ways of collecting blood from the mouse. And, the most feared event came. Time to euthanize the mouse. I always hated this step, and used to choose chemical methods of euthanasia as I don’t want to be able to feel the death of the mouse. However, this time round, I was forced to learn cervical dislocation (breaking of the spine). It was terrible. My hands were shaking as I held onto the mouse. I didn’t dare to pull the tail. When I did, I was unable to use any strength and couldn’t do anything. I tried so many times, before I finally felt a few cracks. Still, it wasn’t done properly and the spine was not completely dislocated. All these while, I had to keep blinking away my tears. I was so scared. The vet had to help me in the end. And she made me feel the head afterwards, to feel the complete separation of the head from the body. And this was not all. My partner (sitting opposite me) was still working on his mouse after I had disposed of mine. It had an eye that wouldn’t stop bleeding, and a heart that could not be found. Time and again, he was poking his needle trying to puncture the heart to extract blood, but to no avail. Suddenly, I saw his mouse doing ‘sit-ups’ and gasping for air. And it’s supposed to be anesthetized! I was so traumatized by that scene—mouse with dilated, bleeding eye gasping for breath while its heart was being poked around. A vet ran over, and commented that it was a common reflex, not to worry. But I just couldn’t take it, and had to turn away. I guess he also felt the same way, and decided to just stop trying. Totally traumatic.

Without much of a break, we had to start working with rats. This time, it’s pair-work. My partner didn’t really dare to pick up the rat though, so I did it. After the totally traumatic mouse experience, I seemed to have gotten exhausted. Just do and finish up with it. No killing involved though, coz we were allowed to ask the vet to do it for us.. (coz the rat’s spine is tougher, may be difficult to break)

After lunch was guinea pig. LUCKY no need to do any work on that! We just had to learn how to carry the guinea pig. 4 people to one guinea pig (that was born on Independence day 4^th july this yr), and noone dared to touch again! Bleah. My partner still said “I’m always waiting for the brave one”. Refering to me lah! I’m not brave.. but I like animals. And I think they like me too! Heez.. coz I could easily carry the guinea pig, but when the other 3 were trying, he kept running around! Actually, people around me may not see me much of an animal lover, coz I seldom pet animals and seldom carry them. That’s not because I don’t like animals, but coz I scared dirty. However, today I was not wearing my own clothes, and I was totally covered up from head to toe with only my eyes exposed. So no fear of fur/bugs flying everywhere! Furthermore, these animals are bred in the cleanest place ever lah! So I had a happy time handling them.. ^_^

Last animal of the day, was the rabbit. YAR. Rabbit. Big, fat, heavy. Without asking, I was the one to carry the rabbit. So heavy I could barely hold him up! After I rested him on the table, he was in the wrong position and I tried to push him.. and he refused to budge! Grr. Since there were 4 of us, I let the other 3 do the dirty work. I took the position of patting the rabbit, holding him in place, saying-ing him. I was quite happy until the end, when the vet said “ok, time to euthanize” and he immediately handed me the needle with the chemical. I was not even given a choice! Simple reason being the ear (the place for administering chemical euthanasia) was right in front of me. At other times I would have whined and asked for someone else to do it. However, the entire room was done with their work and waiting for me. All eyes were on me. No matter how much my hands were shaking, I was given no choice to whine and make a fuss. I just injected it. My mind was blank and I just didn’t feel like talking anymore.

The vets asked throughout the day “so, anyone would like to work with guinea pigs?” and “so do you want to work with rabbits?”. And my reaction was always instantaneous and rigorous shaking of my head. They were abit shocked. Well, I love animals, and would definitely choose not to work with them. But, if given no choice because of scientific experiments, I would not find any excuses but would still take up the job and do it. Just like wyee dajie said, when you sit there, just stop thinking and do it. I think I have been able to do that most of the time today, so I’m quite happy. ^_^

I never thought I could learn so much in 1 day. I’m totally impressed. Effective teaching and learning, this is.

That’s not all. I just checked my mail, and guess what I saw? A thank you email from my partner today. Haha. The world is small lah. I found out he’s the student of the prof who graded my final year project. Shall not divulge the contents of the email, but just a surprise that I got. (and a huge surprise to fangers lah! Haha.. I can’t believe you were thinking of that from day1.. geez)