How common are anatomy labs with cadavers?

ekb1701 said:

I was just curious about how common anatomy labs are in which the students actually get to perform dissections of cadavers. I'm taking such a class now--I'm required to complete a certain number of hours of work in a nearby med school's anatomy lab.

If they're uncommon, could this be an EC/AMCAS activity to note?

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Is it possible to have an anatomy lab without cadavers? How is it in anatomy lab without something to study? Do they line up a bunch of sets of Operation or something?

ADeadLois said:

Is it possible to have an anatomy lab without cadavers? How is it in anatomy lab without something to study? Do they line up a bunch of sets of Operation or something?

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We used a computer program (A.D.A.M.) in undergrad A&P. Yeah, it was lame.

ADeadLois said:

Is it possible to have an anatomy lab without cadavers? How is it in anatomy lab without something to study? Do they line up a bunch of sets of Operation or something?

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That would have been awesome! But we got to cut into cats, if we wanted to.

It was less than impressive, really

ekb1701 said:

I was just curious about how common anatomy labs are in which the students actually get to perform dissections of cadavers. I'm taking such a class now--I'm required to complete a certain number of hours of work in a nearby med school's anatomy lab.

If they're uncommon, could this be an EC/AMCAS activity to note?

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If you are doing it for a class, it is not technically extra curricular, it is curricular. I'm not sure how much mileage you will get off this, considering this is an experience almost every med school is planning to give you anyhow. So if that's what makes you unique, it pretty much ends on day one.

we used cats, other animal's hearts, plastic skeletons in my "human" anatomy lab.

You can say that it was an inspiring course to take or that by doing well, you think you can do well in med school courses as well. However, I don't think you can say that you're unique because of your course.

It's akin to someone saying that he's unique because his school offers Military Combat Surgery 101. Sure, you can say that it was a good experience that broadened your perspective, but that's about it.

depends what you mean by "work" but if its part of your course, I wouldnt list it as an activity.

At my school, there was a summer program where students from our anat class (those who did well) could apply to spend a month dissecting and preparing prosections over the summer. THAT I would consider a unique work activity.

But as others have said, LOTS of ppl have taken anat courses with cadavers. Maybe not all med schools have it,, but its def not UNIQUE

Dr_Dan_the_man said:

depends what you mean by "work" but if its part of your course, I wouldnt list it as an activity.

At my school, there was a summer program where students from our anat class (those who did well) could apply to spend a month dissecting and preparing prosections over the summer. THAT I would consider a unique work activity.

But as others have said, LOTS of ppl have taken anat courses with cadavers. Maybe not all med schools have it,, but its def not UNIQUE

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Ah we do that too. I agree that that would be EC-worthy but even attending open lab (technically unnecessary) couldn't be considered an EC so simply studying from cadavers wouldn't qualify either, I'm afraid.

my school offers cadavers for dissection in anatomy :x

i must say just looking at the cadavers in ap lab and actually getting to cut them are two very different experiences.

My school has a class that lets students (those who do well in ap lec/lab) cut the cadavers for the following year's students. AP is taken mostly be pre-dents pre-nursing, pre-PA, i think pre-opt too.

As for listing it as a EC, im not sure how that would look..

apnea said:

That would have been awesome! But we got to cut into cats, if we wanted to.

It was less than impressive, really

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This is totally common. My poor HS was able to do this. We were next to a cat that had kittens :S. I wouldn't put that on my AMCAS though.

We used cats, bull testicles, sheep hearts, pig kidneys, etc.

Jaded03 said:

This is totally common. My poor HS was able to do this. We were next to a cat that had kittens :S. I wouldn't put that on my AMCAS though.

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The "less than impressive" part of it was the fact that the cats were killed for no reason. We were assured that they had either died of natural causes or were euthanized to prevent their suffering, but every single one of those cats had its throat cut.

my prof was absolutely horrified, she owns 3 of the little fluffballs

apnea said:

The "less than impressive" part of it was the fact that the cats were killed for no reason. We were assured that they had either died of natural causes or were euthanized to prevent their suffering, but every single one of those cats had its throat cut.

my prof was absolutely horrified, she owns 3 of the little fluffballs

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WHAT?! I thought they don't practice that kind of education here (US)... Wow, no ours came in boxes and bags. They are probably strays, but at the same time they were intact..

ekb1701 said:

If they're uncommon, could this be an EC/AMCAS activity to note?

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Not really - some schools specifically tell you not to take classes that you'll be taking in med school anyway...I'm sure it wouldn't hurt you to take it, but I wouldn't put it as an EC.

Spend your time taking classes you're going to enjoy. You'll learn it all in med school, and for the most part, in far greater detail than in UG. Why clutter your brain? Take a wine-tasting course for credit if it's offered, or some fun sociology/psychology classes or art or whatever you like.

Jaded03 said:

WHAT?! I thought they don't practice that kind of education here (US)... Wow, no ours came in boxes and bags. They are probably strays, but at the same time they were intact..

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Ours were bagged and boxed too, probably strays...but they were perfectly healthy animals that had been executed to keep up with supply and demand.

It still makes me sad

apnea said:

Ours were bagged and boxed too, probably strays...but they were perfectly healthy animals that had been executed to keep up with supply and demand.

It still makes me sad

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Dude you two are making me depressed. Especially with the throat cutting

I get sad whenever I see a cat on the highway shoulder. Especially if they look like they positioned themselves after they were hit (as in they aren't in an awkward position). I like to think that they didn't suffer but when they look like they just fell asleep, it's hard to pretend that they weren't still alive enough to move themselves.

apnea said:

Ours were bagged and boxed too, probably strays...but they were perfectly healthy animals that had been executed to keep up with supply and demand.

It still makes me sad

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Actually, if they were strays, it's quite possible they were killed because animal shelters only have limited space and therefore have to euthanize their animals after a certain period.

TarHeelBorn said:

We used a computer program (A.D.A.M.) in undergrad A&P. Yeah, it was lame.

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haha is it the peel a dude/woman one, I bought a bunch of programs when I was on a trip overseas from this random market and some of them have turned out to be kind of cool. It kept me entertained... it's quite detailed too.

our highschool had fetal pigs... and horses.

joshin. unicorns rather...

KeyzerSoze said:

Actually, if they were strays, it's quite possible they were killed because animal shelters only have limited space and therefore have to euthanize their animals after a certain period.

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That's why I don't support my local SPCA, which is a kill shelter. I like to think that private shelters like those that grannies and families set up at PetSmart are better.

KeyzerSoze said:

Actually, if they were strays, it's quite possible they were killed because animal shelters only have limited space and therefore have to euthanize their animals after a certain period.

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That makes it ok how...?

But that's not what the company said. We were promised cats that had either died of natural causes, or had been euthanized to prevent their suffering while they were dying of natural causes. Nothing to do with a shelter not being able to handle them.

Slicing a cat's throat open isn't euthanasia. It's execution.

Last I heard, there were only 5 or so undergrad schools in the country that had their own cadaver labs (not associated with medical school labs). So it's different, and you could maybe take note of it, but I certainly wouldn't put it down as an EC. It's still a class.

And I'm not going to join in on the dissecting cats debate. Staying far, far away...

I don't think its uncommon - we had cadaver based anatomy at UC Berkeley, hell, I could have taken cadaver based anatomy in High school (they got 2/year).

So I would say no you can't use it as an EC, like others have said its not EXTRA curricular, and its not that unusual.

koko_eats said:

That's why I don't support my local SPCA, which is a kill shelter. I like to think that private shelters like those that grannies and families set up at PetSmart are better.

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There's a lot of evidence that no-kill shelters can actually be harmful to animals. While I'm not a big fan of killing helpless animals its not the shelters fault, they have limited resources and no animal should live in a cage for 20 years (its better off dead). The fault is the idiot back yard breeders who breed their pets to make money, or so the kids can see an animal have kittens, or who are just too ignorant or lazy to spay/neuter their animals. Don't blame the local shelter - blame the ignorant pet owners.

Here's on article on the no-kill shelters being harmful to animals: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20246424/

Its just unrealistic to think that we can get away with making all shelters no kill. It will never work, not until we fix the overpopulation problems.

apnea said:

The "less than impressive" part of it was the fact that the cats were killed for no reason. We were assured that they had either died of natural causes or were euthanized to prevent their suffering, but every single one of those cats had its throat cut.

my prof was absolutely horrified, she owns 3 of the little fluffballs

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Their throats may have been cut post mortem during a cut-down procedure to get to the carotids in order to perfuse them with formaldehyde. Some of the companies that supply anatomy specimens use this method. They even do it with human cadavers sometimes.
They cut down to the carotids/ jugular and hook up a tube attached to a pump which pumps the formaldehyde in at high pressure.
Thats why a lot of medical school cadavers come in looking like the wrists or throats have been cut.

Besides, why would someone cut a cat's throat when there are less messy ways of killing them if thats what you really wanted to do.

alwaysaangel said:

There's a lot of evidence that no-kill shelters can actually be harmful to animals. While I'm not a big fan of killing helpless animals its not the shelters fault, they have limited resources and no animal should live in a cage for 20 years (its better off dead). The fault is the idiot back yard breeders who breed their pets to make money, or so the kids can see an animal have kittens, or who are just too ignorant or lazy to spay/neuter their animals. Don't blame the local shelter - blame the ignorant pet owners.

Here's on article on the no-kill shelters being harmful to animals: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20246424/

Its just unrealistic to think that we can get away with making all shelters no kill. It will never work, not until we fix the overpopulation problems.

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Well I don't support the local shelters because they're no-kill neccessarily. I support them because the cats aren't even forced to live in a cage. Two shelters that I'm thinking of takes in feral moms and her kittens and raises them. They have about 5 right now and it's a husband/wife/family friends team and I think they're doing their own part to improve awareness while giving the cats a good home.

koko_eats said:

Well I don't support the local shelters because they're no-kill neccessarily. I support them because the cats aren't even forced to live in a cage. Two shelters that I'm thinking of takes in feral moms and her kittens and raises them. They have about 5 right now and it's a husband/wife/family friends team and I think they're doing their own part to improve awareness while giving the cats a good home.

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Ah fair enough. Yeah no cage rescues are great to support.

I just know a lot of people that seriously bad mouth normal shelters-which I just don't think is fair when there really aren't a lot of other options.

alwaysaangel said:

Ah fair enough. Yeah no cage rescues are great to support.

I just know a lot of people that seriously bad mouth normal shelters-which I just don't think is fair when there really aren't a lot of other options.

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Yeah I wouldn't want to reward groups that take all the animals that they can without regard to the resources at their disposal. I guess the article called the phenomenon warehousing.

My GF's convinced that one day we'll have a house large enough to take care of families of feral cats too but I don't think she's thought about how hard it is to chase one down in the first place.

koko_eats said:

Yeah I wouldn't want to reward groups that take all the animals that they can without regard to the resources at their disposal. I guess the article called the phenomenon warehousing.

My GF's convinced that one day we'll have a house large enough to take care of families of feral cats too but I don't think she's thought about how hard it is to chase one down in the first place.

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Eh if you establish yourself you'd probably have people giving more to you than you can handle. But its definitely a noble goal.

I'm about to get my first kitten (well since I left my parents household). I'm so excited! We're picking her up on Thursday from the LA shelter

Increasingly the anatomy labs use lawyers.

The medical students tend to get less attached to lawyers than to cadavers.

The new stench in the labs however can be overwhelming!!

we partially dissect human cadavers in my anatomy lab. for example, the day we learn a bout the lower leg, we have a human leg in front of us that has been pretty well opened up, but still a leg. We then get to poke and prod around that leg to find all the bones/muscles/etc that we learned about in lecture.

alwaysaangel said:

Eh if you establish yourself you'd probably have people giving more to you than you can handle. But its definitely a noble goal.

I'm about to get my first kitten (well since I left my parents household). I'm so excited! We're picking her up on Thursday from the LA shelter

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Ooo congrats! I never wanted a cat until a grad student at my lab in Davis caught a lone 3 week old feral cat on campus and took her in for a week before he had to move. He gave her to another undergrad who kept her for a year until she had to go to med school. She finally gave her to my GF a year ago and we love her to death.

Koko's probably the best thing that's happened to me and she has so much personality. She bites you if you don't pay attention to her, she watches movies with you, she walks around the house meowing to herself, and she LOVES cardboard and paper almost as much as her English major owner does.

Hope you enjoy your cat's company!! I wish we got to see our cat when she was still a kitten. All we have are her baby photos.