Are you doing reproduction in your curriculum this term? Mr Vivi’s all ovary it. Don’t let other suppliers testis you with delays in supply, he has you covered there too. Further more, you won’t have to drive your uterus to the abattoir, he’ll send it all right to your door. 😉
6 Oct 2015
Sometimes something so unusual appears that we can’t help ourselves and we have to cut it up ourselves. This heart presented us with one of those times.
On the outside it was rough textured and the tissue was very soft. It was easy to pull a piece off with your fingers.
On the inside the right side chambers had a few differences to a normal heart. The right atrium and ventricle were both very circular in shape compared to a typical heart. The pectinate muscles and the trabeculae carnae were almost non-existent so inside the right side chambers was very smooth.
There was a layer of tissue on the outside that was obviously different to the rest of the myocardium.
The pericardium was separate and appeared quite normal, as did the rest of the pluck.
At the outset we thought we might have a parasitic infection and were a bit disappointed to find no evidence of it when we opened up the heart. Perhaps it was a congenital defect or a viral infection that caused it? If anyone has any insight into what we had then we’d love to hear it.  Drop us a line here.
This little piggy was never going to make it to market, unfortunately.
Born without part of its skull and the brain or fluid protruding, it’s the only one we’ve ever seen here. As far as we can tell everything else is completely normally developed, but you won’t really know until you perform a necropsy.
I have asked around for a name for this condition and if the Twitterverse sends one back to me I will post an update. In the meantime, if you would like to hear about these special specimens when they do pop up then join our What’s in Miss Vivi’s Freezer mailing list.
I came to work the other day to find this email waiting for me. I’m pleased to see that even when we get it wrong we sort of get it right.
“This is a shot of the dissection of one of the porcine kidneys we sourced from you. As you can see it has a cyst. It was fascinating and the girls (and the staff) learnt so much. When it was dissected, it used urine, so we assumed there was a blockage – perhaps a stone. The girls handled and felt the difference between the healthy flesh and the unhealthy. I thought you’d be interested in our lesson.”
I’m not sure how we missed it when we were packing because we do check every organ that comes through, but in this case I’m glad we did.
Mr Vivi came back from a Chamber of Commerce talk the same day buzzing about this specky new machine they have at a nearby University. It allows the user to navigate and interact with all kinds of virtual environments – including body systems. I’m certain that it’s a fantastic, engaging and valuable educational tool but I’m just as certain that nothing is like experiencing the real thing in your hands.
Apr 10, 2014
