Oooh, you're a pretty little slug...!
Dec. 23rd, 2008 04:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikSo there's an argument that I really can't leave for Seattle too soon, I say, as I'm in the lab all by myself, prepping a slug for surgery and find myself cooing to it. I really like my current set of experiments. For all my promise to "take care of" all the remaining animals over break (so that we can do the annual serious cleaning of the slug room) most of what I'm doing are in vivo surgeries, and I'm hoping for my slugs to not only survive but thrive. Which makes me realize how much more I enjoy interacting with them, y'know, alive and healthy. (Mostly recently I've been interacting with small pieces of slugs. Like isolated muscles.)
Yesterday was my first attempt at a new surgical procedure. The point is to be able to work on a set of muscles inside the feeding apparatus in a much less invasive way. (If it works, it means some things that were considered fiendishly difficult, perhaps impossible, because relatively simple.) Been wanting to do this for at least six months, so it's one of my over break projects.
Right now I'm trying to figure out if a slug that has had the basic incisions, but nothing else done, can recover and feed. Since I'd never done it before, when the slug I selected yesterday was noticeably unhappy and perhaps unwell (not something you want for an animal you're hoping will recover) I decided to go forward. After all, even if he's maybe dying anyway... well, it's a new procedure, and I'll probably not get it right the first time. (Aren't you glad I'm in research rather than going for a clinical degree yet?)
So I did the procedure, which turned out to be about as simple as I'd hoped, and put him in a recovery tank.
And lo, he recovered. This afternoon, in fact, he was perky and happy and all over the food I offered him. Totally into the food. (Sometimes it's really hard to coax them to eat, especially after surgery.) Happy to chase after the food.
But apparently unable to open his mouth. Okay, his mouth might be sore. Or there might be adhesions, which is what I'm really worried about with this technique.
Okay, it's only been one day. I'm really hoping he comes through, though.
Anyhow, so I'm starting work on another guy. An it occurs to me that since I'm doing surgeries from which I hope they will recover and be just fine, I should pick out a really happy healthy slug. (I will usually use the ailing slugs if I can. Or better, leftover bits from someone else's slug. This is not only frugal, it means less killing slugs overall, and I am fond of them.) So I find a slug that seems to be really having a good time, and sure enough, he is just a beautiful slug. Wonderful structure, good muscle tone, beautiful gills and coloration...
So I weigh him, put in just enough anesthetic to make him woozy enough he won't try to crawl out of the container, and prep him for iced anesthesia. (Basically, cool them down until they're inactive and can't feel anything. They recover better from this than higher doses of chemical anesthetics.)
See, what I do is take the woozy slug, and build slughenge:
a bunch of pieces of styrofoam surrounding the slug, and keeping ice from having direct contact with their skin.
The I put in ice, which chills the artificial sea water they're in:
and then I put the whole thing in the freezer for about forty-five minutes, checking frequently.
Then, leaving the slug in its ice bath, I quickly do my surgery. (Yes, this is just as cold and unpleasant to my hands at it sounds) and then put them back in an isolated section of a tank to recover. Okay, I haven't gotten that far today - this guy is just about ready to come out of the freezer. Brr!
Yesterday was my first attempt at a new surgical procedure. The point is to be able to work on a set of muscles inside the feeding apparatus in a much less invasive way. (If it works, it means some things that were considered fiendishly difficult, perhaps impossible, because relatively simple.) Been wanting to do this for at least six months, so it's one of my over break projects.
Right now I'm trying to figure out if a slug that has had the basic incisions, but nothing else done, can recover and feed. Since I'd never done it before, when the slug I selected yesterday was noticeably unhappy and perhaps unwell (not something you want for an animal you're hoping will recover) I decided to go forward. After all, even if he's maybe dying anyway... well, it's a new procedure, and I'll probably not get it right the first time. (Aren't you glad I'm in research rather than going for a clinical degree yet?)
So I did the procedure, which turned out to be about as simple as I'd hoped, and put him in a recovery tank.
And lo, he recovered. This afternoon, in fact, he was perky and happy and all over the food I offered him. Totally into the food. (Sometimes it's really hard to coax them to eat, especially after surgery.) Happy to chase after the food.
But apparently unable to open his mouth. Okay, his mouth might be sore. Or there might be adhesions, which is what I'm really worried about with this technique.
Okay, it's only been one day. I'm really hoping he comes through, though.
Anyhow, so I'm starting work on another guy. An it occurs to me that since I'm doing surgeries from which I hope they will recover and be just fine, I should pick out a really happy healthy slug. (I will usually use the ailing slugs if I can. Or better, leftover bits from someone else's slug. This is not only frugal, it means less killing slugs overall, and I am fond of them.) So I find a slug that seems to be really having a good time, and sure enough, he is just a beautiful slug. Wonderful structure, good muscle tone, beautiful gills and coloration...
So I weigh him, put in just enough anesthetic to make him woozy enough he won't try to crawl out of the container, and prep him for iced anesthesia. (Basically, cool them down until they're inactive and can't feel anything. They recover better from this than higher doses of chemical anesthetics.)
See, what I do is take the woozy slug, and build slughenge:
a bunch of pieces of styrofoam surrounding the slug, and keeping ice from having direct contact with their skin.
The I put in ice, which chills the artificial sea water they're in:
and then I put the whole thing in the freezer for about forty-five minutes, checking frequently.
Then, leaving the slug in its ice bath, I quickly do my surgery. (Yes, this is just as cold and unpleasant to my hands at it sounds) and then put them back in an isolated section of a tank to recover. Okay, I haven't gotten that far today - this guy is just about ready to come out of the freezer. Brr!
