Name that nerve!

My favourite part of the vet course so far is the weekly anatomy lab. At the start of semester, everybody was put into groups of five or so and we given a preserved dog cadavar that we look after and dissect (methodically cut up in order to study its internal parts - thanks google). Those of you who are a bit squeamish may not like this but I'll tell you, it is so interesting and boosts our learning of anatomy in a way that textbooks never could.

We have to respect our cadavar (a rottweiler, whom we've named Burt) and look after him so he doesn't dry out or go mouldy. We aren't allowed to take pictures due to ethical issues. So it really is all in the name of science. This initial dissection is a start to what will become my surgical skills in the future, i.e. learning how and when to use a scapel, scissors, forceps and other instruments, and be able to see how the anatomy we are learning in lectures fits together to make a whole functioning organism.

Rottweilers are acutally adorable and friendly if trained properly!

As with all things dirty and potentially infectious, we have to wash our hands vigorously after each lab and I've taken to doing it whenever I can. In the bathroom, after touching animals, before eating food. It's better safe than sorry! They gave us an introductory talk on all the zoonoses (a disease that can be transmitted to humans from animals) out there and I don't wanna risk it!

We've been focussing on the forelimb of the dog thus far, first learning the bones, then the muscles, and more recently the nerves that innervate (supply an organ or other body part with nerves) those muscles to cause contraction for locomotion. I've had to learn not just the names of muscles, but where they come from (origin) and where the attach (insertion). And bones! You thought it was hard learning the name of a bone, well, you have NO idea. Someone sat down with each bone and thought "hmmm there's a little bump here, lets name it something long in latin, and there's a TINY depression here... let's give it an equally ridiculous name!" so yes. To be honest it's kinda cool, cos those bumps and depressions have a purpose (usually attachment sites of muscles) but still, there's a lot to learn!

The most interesting one so far is dissecting out the brachial plexus (brachial: meaning of the upper arm, and plexus: meaning an intricate network or weblike formation of nerves). So the brachial plexus is a network of nerves, kinda like a junction of a motorway where all the lanes come together and then exit off again to go to various places. Mostly nerves are too small to see, but when they are all bundled together you CAN see them and thus they have names depending on where they are going. I couldn't find a good picture of this on google and I don't think many people would appreciate it so... yeah! I'm really enjoying all this because it is so interesting and like I said, so much better than lectures and a textbook. If we do anything else cool with Burt the rottweiler, I'll do an update!

And you thought the humerus was funny...