What are the safety hazards I should watch out for when working with lab rats?

Question

Starting tommorrow I'm going to be doing a sort of interneship at a college with a proffessor who's studying the effects of drugs in humans (especially methamphetamine in pregnent women & homosexuals). We're supposed to be working with live lab rats & I've never done that before. What should I be wary of?

Thank you guys so much.

Answer 1

CONTRARY to popular belief:
Lab rats are usually very very clean... and often live a very sterile lifestyle. As such, they often have rather weak immune systems.

I used to work for a sterilization equipment manufacturer, and one of the things we built were cage washers, designed to completely sterilize the cage a rat stays in... It was important because even a weak disease could wipe out a whole population of rats. Technicians assigned to work on equipment had to have a special set of sterilized tools, and had to shower in the faciity's showers before entering the clean room to do maintenance, and at some places wouldn't be allowed in at all if they had a cold or flu within a full 7 days.

Most of your emphasis will be on protecting yourself... not from the rats, but to protect the rats from your germ-riddled body. You dirty, dirty human. ;)

Seriously, You probably pose a greater danger to the rats than they pose to you. Lab rats are usually kept fairly germ-free, so that no errant germs will interfere with the test ran on the rats.

Compared to those Sterile-Isolated fuzzy creatures, we are a walking cesspool of icky stuff.

Answer 2

i agree with Cameron B and with all those who said that rats can bite readily. there is just one more risk (not a health risk and i dont know whether it applies to your experiments, but i weel it should be added) and that is the rats can escape for good if you leave the lid open, or, even worse, they can (for any reason) get mixed up so you dont know which one is which - sometimes they look pretty the same. i know it may seem absolutely trivial, but....
i suggest that you mark the rat BEFORE , say, you give it the shot - this way if the rat runs away, nothing happens, you just know that it didnot get its shot, but if you gave the shot with the idea that the next step would be the marking, the rat would dissappear among other unmarked brothers and sisters and that is it.

Answer 3

i don't understand ... I examine this & i decide on help now. Auh, that replaced into not his colon/intestines its a huge promote off. Dude, in case you ever so finished (constipation) bypass for it, call 911. At one time lengthy previously contained in the land of oz.. the forged witch had somewhat one. infant being such so smooth. that once the depraved oh sorry i advise solid witch gave infant a bath contained in the sink or bath. the forged witch unplugged the drain at the same time as ever so dumb left infant. The stress of a drain would nicely be very solid & this detrimental ingredient were given a number of the insides sucked out. Dude do not placed your head cclose to empty.. or R u the only desiring a mind.??

Answer 4

I worked with rats at a med school for my first job out of college. When holding a rat by the tail, it can spin and you can be left holding only the skin of its tail. Still grosses me out to think of it 25 years later. Beware.

Answer 5

The hazards lie within the use of the laboratory's instruments,devices,etc...tom science

Answer 6

dont let them bite you very germy, treat rats like you would a dog

Answer 7

Wear thick gloves and make your shots are up to date.

Answer 8

I would make sure you put your lunch in a safe place

Answer 9

Bites...

Make sure you get a tetanus shot.

Answer 10

Ask your professor. He/she will know more about this than we will.