Rat Surgeries

I am just about to start my last rat surgery for the day. Today, it is jugular catheters. This means I insert a small piece of tubing into the rat's jugular vein so that we can draw blood without hurting the rat or disrupting his feeding cycle. I have finished 3 today, and have 7 more to do (including the 4th of the day) this week.

Normally these surgeries are fun for me, but today I am just not feeling it. Hopefully this won't affect the outcomes. FYI, here is a bad picture of the area I'm catheterizing... the greenish part is the jugular vein.