Cats Stand in for Human Anatomy

To learn about muscular systems as well as the use of surgical tools, Physiology students began a month-long cat dissection project on February 25.

“I think even if they study things like the types of tissue in your body, when they’re actually dissecting and separating fat and loose area of the connective tissue around muscle, and really looking at it, then they really get an idea of how it feels differently,” said Physiology teacher Roxanna Jackman.

The cats were already mostly skinned and drained of blood when students received them, according to senior Physiology student Tal Shoshan, and only contained skin and fur on their paws, faces, tails, and feet.

The first step for students was the removal of fat surrounding the muscles and organs, a particularly daunting task with this year’s cat cadavers.

Jackman called the batch “really fat, fat, obese cats.”

While Shoshan said she and her partner were dissecting a relatively skinny cat, she still found removing the fat “pretty gross.”

“The fat itself is white, very greasy. It’s a really weird texture and it makes me appreciate surgeons in a new light ’cause I don’t ever want to cut through that kind of fat on a human. I gotta say, it’s pretty disgusting,” said Shoshan.

“I think it gives them empathy for doctors who probably have a lot of their patients being morbidly fat and how much extra work it is to get through all of that and into the person and find what they’re looking for and how unhealthy it is but it’s kind of fascinating too,” said Jackman. “And it’s definitely challenging. It takes extra time when you have to work with that.”

Other challenges included cutting with precision and avoiding damage to areas students wanted to uncover by keep intact. Another obstacle for some was dealing with the unpleasant odor.

“Especially now that they’re dead and they’re starting to decompose, the muscle is starting to change color. So it started off pinkish, because of the blood. The blood drains and they put in plastic where the circulatory system is, but now the muscle is this weird brown color, and it’s very thin, and it’s really easy to cut away. So you have to be very careful not to. But it’s fun,” said Shoshan.

A liquid mixture of preservatives and moisture from the cat bodies contribute to the odor.

“The worst part is when you first get your cat and it’s in a vacuum-sealed bag,” Shoshan said. “And you cut into the bag and the liquid’s there, and you just get a waft of the smell right in your face.”

Shoshan said she finds dissecting things “really interesting” and can normally handle the odor, but even she “almost threw up” upon cutting open the bag containing her cat cadaver.

“It was the most disgusting smell. Imagine the smell of something rotting in your fridge, except everything’s rotting in your fridge all at once, you haven’t opened your fridge for months, and then all of a sudden you open it and the smell is right there. That’s the kind of intensity and disgustingness it has. It’s not a good smell,” Shoshan added.

The smell intensified as the dissections progressed, according to junior Physiology student Julie Hyatt, because the exposure to air caused the corpses to decompose faster.

While AP Biology students focus on organs when dissecting fetal pigs, Jackman said Physiology students focus on muscles.  They also learn dissection skills, including how to suture when they make mistakes. “Between the two of our classes, we do the whole anatomy very thoroughly. But neither one of them does the exact same thing in our dissecting programs,” Jackman said.

According to Jackman, students usually dissect 3 days a week during the project. On the other days they compare the muscles of humans and cats, take quizzes, and play review games.

The dissections culminate in a lab practical in which students must look at the dissected cats and identify various muscles.

Students take photos of their dissected cats and post them online for access during review before the exam.

Squeamish students were not required to do the dissecting so long as they had a partner who could do the work. “They can be the one taking photos and making the labels, they can be putting the picture of what they’re looking for on the screen, they can help with cleanup. There’s lots and lots of jobs to do and you can get by with never touching the cat and being part of a team and being fine in this class. So you don’t have to touch it. You do have to look at it,” Jackman said of the responsibilities of those not willing to get their hands dirty.

Most students found the project fascinating.

“It’s really cool seeing the muscles and knowing that that all worked together to allow this cat to do such amazing things,” said Shoshan.

Hyatt thought the best part of dissecting cats was “seeing the correlation between their bodies and human bodies.”

“All of the stuff that we’ve done in Physio so far has been put into this one project. It’s been pretty cool to see that,” Hyatt said. “It’s cool to see on an actual specimen what they look like, instead of just looking at pictures.”