Skinning, Day Three

9/22/14

Kate and I continued to skin Semara’s forelimbs and her hindlimbs on day three. We continued to use scalpels but at times found it easier to cut the skin tissue off using the scissors, especially when trying to skin the forelimbs around the tori (paws). Kate had some difficulty skinning one of Semara’s forelimbs but this was because her blade had rusted. Because it was a monday, both of our blades had rusted over the weekend, making it difficult to skin Semara. Once we received new blades, we started to make progress. Unfortunately, I accidentally severed the achilles tendon while trying to skin Semara’s hindlimb. I was trying to skin around this tendon but, I was working too quickly and cut right through the achilles tendon. This incident reminded me that I need to be more patient and work at a slower pace to prevent future accidents. I did a cleaner job skinning the forelimb (no accidents). It was pretty exciting to see what the hindlimbs and the forelimbs looked like without skin covering them. By the end of class, Kate and I had skinned both hindlimbs and forelimbs, which was the main focus of today. Posted below are close up pictures of the hindlimbs and forelimbs, and more progress in skinning.