Read Part One – The terrapins cried for help
So, after lots and lots of practice, we finally managed to draw sufficient amount of blood from the terrapins. Well, J was successful most of the time – I really think it was because he was more cruel. Imagine poking into the hatchling’s leg a needle about 3 cm long!! And J said that if we did it correctly, the terrapins won’t feel the pain, and they won’t piss on us – which was true. There was one hatchling which not only pissed but defecated when we were attempting to draw some blood! So yea, it was sometimes quite messy and dirty..
Anyway, we managed to collect enough samples for a component of the entire blood test – i.e. to determine the Packed Cell Volume (PCV) of the terrapins’ blood. PCV is the measure of the amount of red blood cells (in terms of percentage) in the whole blood (OK, we shall do this step-by-step).
This is the centrifuge machine I mentioned earlier. It is a very ancient machine, no doubt, but thank God it is very well functioning! When we managed to bleed the terrapins a few days ago, the blood in the hematocrit tubes were clot by the time we sent them to the lab for processing. I was lucky to be able to borrow this portable centrifuge machine so that I could spin the tubes immediately after the blood samples were collected.
Open the cover and this is what you see..
The hematocrit tubes are placed into the holders (or slots) which are numbered from one to 24. And since the machine works only if it is balanced, we placed empty hematocrit tubes into the rest of the slots. I set the centrifuge machine to spin at 10,500 RPM (rounds per minute) for 5 minutes to separate the blood components – red blood cells, white blood cells and plasma.
At the end of 5 minutes, the blood in the hematocrit tubes look like this (above). I then measured the length of the red blood cells (2.1 cm) and divide it over the total length (5.9 cm) to get the percentage of Packed Cell Volume (35.59%). Comparatively, the normal range of a human being’s PCV is between 35% and 52%.
It isn’t very confusing, is it?
Err.. Any questions?
Why didn’t you poke yourself so that we can learn something about human blood today? :P
pelf: You want to learn something about human blood? Go learn from Wiki, my dear. Nobody has done any blood-related test on the river terrapins (Batagur baska) and that was why I started this study. You don’t quite get the whole idea, do you?
I hope you wrote nice letters to Santa about how nice these terrapins were … :)
pelf: I hope Santa grants me my wish – to easily locate their veins so that they feel no pain whatsoever. Ouh well, Santa doesn’t grant wishes, no? Hhahaha :)
Hmm… Oddly enough, that old machine kinda reminds me an old radio my grandad has. Funny hehe. i think the designers stole the design from a radio hehhee
pelf: Hhahaha, maybe, maybe :P But then again, I thought most ancient machines are like that – squarish and have knobs instead of buttons, hahaha :)
*sobs*
I just want to see what’s the difference between human blood and the terrapins blood, you know, like comparison in the picture.
*sobs*
pelf: That’s what I am trying to do la, dear.. To determine the difference..
Next time I’ll give you some blood, and you help me do the spinning, OK? I think it’s fun la!
pelf: Spin your head la. I’m supposed to return the ancient machine in two weeks..
I also want to take the terrapins’ blood samples (= :)
pelf: Take blood samples? But you dare not even hold a terrapin! *rolls eyes*