04/05/01(Updated by Jenn)- Now that we have inoculated both rats we will observe them closely. Earlier this morning we checked on them and found that Fump's injured site seemed to be healing quite normally. For Fump, this is good, but for our experiment it is slightly disappointing. It is possible that they can lick the bacteria off. To read about the immune systems response to injury, click HERE.
04/03/01(Updated by Emily)- We ended up doing the actual shave-and-introduce part of the project today due to the fact that we did not have time to do so yesterday. It is good that we did not do this part of the project yesterday because it took us almost three periods to complete this project, and we only finished Fump. I don't think we could have been prepared for everything that happened as we attempted to introduce the bacteria to this rat, even though we were well versed in what we were going to do. I had had past experience with shaving animals, but I did not realize just how hard it is to shave a rat! The trimmers that we used were horrible, and did not work on Fump's thick undercoat. Jenn got me a pair of scissors, and I began to trim the hair. It was difficult to get close to the skin due to the fat that she was wriggling and I was doing my best not to cut her. By the time that I had finished trimming her (both flanks- the shoulder that we had hoped to trim was not possible to do) I had been bitten, scratched, and used as a giant rat toilet. Her haircut was horrible, and the animal looked ridiculous. The next part that we were not prepared to face was the actual incising of the skin. We are both animal lovers and did not like the idea of cutting the rats. It took us many attempts because we did not know how hard to press on the scalpel, but Jenn finally managed to incise a "H" shaped pattern in Fump's right flank. We were both shook up about this experience, and wanted to finish quickly. We then went to the lab tables, where Jenn swabbed samples of Staph A. onto the abrasion and onto the skin on the other flank that was intact. When that was finished, we felt that it would be a wise idea to cover the area that was innoculated with a sheet of gauze in order to keep the area pure....Not a good plan. We spent about fifteen minutes trying to figure out how to tape the gauze on the squirming rat without covering any crucial orfices. In addition to the awkward location, the tape that we used (surgical tape) did NOT stick too well to the fur around the shaved patch. After many failures, we decided to surrender and think more about the procedure. We did get quite a laugh at Fump when we placed her into her cage with her final make-shift bandage on. She stumbled forward and rolled face-first on the ground! It turns out that I had taped her legs together and did not notice! At least we got some laughs out of the experiment. We will be thinking about the procedures more and do Err tomorrow.....(We hope....)
03/30/01(Updated by Emily)-Today was another typical day for the rats. The babies are getting very large, and are eating many grams of solid food. We have also noticed them drinking water on their own. Due to the small size of the 5 1/2 gallon tank of the rats, the babies will be separated from Eek on Monday. We do not feel that they will be harmed due to the large amount of solid food that they consume daily. Monday will be the beginning of the bacterial experimentation if all goes well....
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