Animal Housing

[Marek]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering how people here deal with postsurgical animal housing. We used to keep our mice single housed when they have an implant. However, technically there is nothing really delicate that can break on the lens implants and probably the implant wouldn't withstand the scope attachment if it also wouldn't withstand a group house scenario. Given the widespread evidence of high impact of social conditions on all sorts of behaviors and neuronal function even in mice, we would like to at least pair mice after surgeries. However, we also don't want to test this 100% blind, so I'm keen to know if someone has experience with lens implants + group housing? Otherwise, why do you not group house animals? 

Cheers

Marek

[Florian Steenbergen]

Hi Marek,

we usually group house the mice directly after implanting them with the Grinlens implant (and try to implant the animals from the same cage as close together as possible). However, we also implant the grinlens directly with the baseplate, so it is protected.

That being said, I doubt that the mice will damage the implants even if you implant only the grinlens first and cover it with something, so i think you can definitely group house them as soon as possible!

Cheers,

Florian

[thomas.p...@gmail.com]

Hi Marek,

If you implant them with the baseplate it shouldn't be a problem at all. If you only implant the lens, make sure you cover it appropriately so that the conspecifics can't get access. I had occasions where I covered the implanted lens with body double and then dental cement and they got rid of the dental cement and damaged the lens. If you keep a close eye on them, you can definitely group house the mice.

Cheers,

Thomas