External Observations

9/17/14

The external observation indicates the cat’s general health and helps indicate how the cat may have died. For example, If the cat has a broken bone, it may have been hit by a car; If the cat is covered in flies and has hair loss, it may not have been in ideal living conditions. In order to perform an external observation, I had to put on gloves, a protective mask and an apron. Because my cat, Semara, came in a bag, my lab partner, Kate, and I had to carefully remove her from the bag by using scissors to cut after the heat sealed plastic area. This was slightly difficult because Kate and I had to remove Semara without spilling any of the fluids within the bag onto the floor or the lab table. After Semara was removed from the bag, we then performed an external procedure which included checking and locating the head, eyes, third eye lid, pinnae (ears), mouth, nares (nose and nostrils), philtrum (the skin in between the nose and the upper lip), vibrissae (the whiskers on the upper lip and philtrum area), neck, trunk (body), forelimbs, hindlimbs, teats and tori (paws). I found it interesting to perform the external observations because it gave me a better understanding of my cat. Kate and I actually noticed that one of Semara’s legs may have been broken. Also Semara had two shaved spots on her sides near her hind limbs. We believe this is because she had an ultrasound done to get a better understanding of her kidneys, which leads Kate and I to conclude that there may be a problem with her kidneys. This external observation was successful and nothing sufficiently wrong was found which is relieving. Posted below are several pictures of the cat where her different bodies parts are clearly labeled and able to be seen (The third eyelid is labeled as “eyelid”). There is also a picture showing the incision lines (where the cat will be cut with the scalpel).