ANYONE GOT ANY IDEAS ON HOW TO EXTRACT BLOOD FROM MICE- I FIND CARDIAC PUNCTURE VERY HIT AND MISS?

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you should try retro- orbital punction. it's easy to manage under anaesthesia

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If you're doing a terminal proceedure, you may be able to get away with highly anesthetizing, opening the chest and then doing a cardiac puncture...like if going to do a perfusion. If the mice need to be saved for another day, retro-orbital could be done. I've also seen the nicking of a tail vein and collecting a small amount there.

Junie

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It depends on how much blood you need. The total blood volume in an animal's body equals approximately 6% of its total body weight. To prevent anemia for nonterminal bleeds the guideline is you can take a volume of 1% of the body weight every two weeks. I have found that orbital sinus bleeding works very well in the mouse model.

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Nicking the tail vein(s) with a sharp instrument like a scalpel gave me enough blood for monitoring antibody-titers, is non-terminal and I personally prefer a cut in the skin to drilling into the mouse's eye (<- dramatization! ). The only thing you have to do for successful tail-blooding, is to make sure that the mouse is warmand therefor the peripheral vessels are wide - we use a redlight and put the mice under that 10 minutes before bleeding.

mike

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How to do mouse eyebleed without making my gloves bloody?

I have no problem eyebleeding the white mice, but have problem with black mice (they are very hyperactive). The black mice always want to escape from my hand.

Thanks in advance.

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Do you have acess to anesthesia? You could put them under just a little bit and they'd be less reactive and more manageable.

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Will inhale anesthesia be fine?

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I would imagine so ... that's what we use. It shouldn't effect your ability to bleed them and will make holding them a bit more manageable.

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Thank you. Jamie419.

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