lab equipment

Veterinary Services Researcher Information

The principal responsibility of Veterinary Services is to maintain and improve the mental and physical health status of the experimental animals, thus providing investigative staff with high quality research animals necessary for their studies. All rodents are observed for health issues at a minimum of once per week by an assigned veterinary technician to an animal housing room, but the cages are also assessed daily for food/water/sick or dead animals by the husbandry staff. Those identified by with a health concern either by the husbandry staff or Veterinary Services are evaluated by Veterinary Services, and a treatment plan is established in consultation with a veterinarian and confirmed with the investigative staff (Tufts CMS Animal Health Checks and Procedure for Requiring or Requesting Euthanasia). Any rodent with a health concern is rechecked throughout the week as needed based on the clinical assessment of the animal. The health of non-rodent species is assessed daily, excluding weekends, by Veterinary Services and on weekends by the husbandry staff. Any health concerns involving non-rodent species are immediately reported to a veterinarian.

Veterinary Services serves as the institutional resource regarding the analgesics, anesthetics, drugs, and matters of animal anatomy, physiology, nutrition, and husbandry.

Tufts CMS also administers a comprehensive quality assurance program, which defines, monitors, and maintains the health profile of the rodent colonies utilizing state-of-the-art sampling and diagnostic techniques. An extensive sentinel health monitoring program has been implemented in rodent colonies to detect the introduction of unwanted adventitious agents. This is ensured by:

  • Rigorous exclusion of animals from vendors that do not reliably supply disease-free animals;
  • Quarantine and health monitoring evaluation of all animals imported from non-commercial or non-approved sources;
  • Rederivation of quarantine animals which were found to be infected with a pathogen not present in the resident colonies;
  • Denying feral rodents access to the animal facility;
  • Recapture and sacrifice of escaped rodents; and
  • Monitoring transplantable tumors and other biological materials for microbial contamination before passage in animals.

In addition, caging systems and husbandry procedures are utilized that minimize the likelihood of transmitting infectious agents.

Tufts CMS veterinary staff provides the following to rodents who are recovering, debilitated, or too young/small to reach the water and food hopper. Tufts CMS has observed great improvement in the clinical conditions of various rodent models using these supportive care provisions allowing for research goals to be attained while maintaining the welfare of the animals. You may see abbreviations for these treatments written on health check cage cards.

  1. Food on the cage floor – “FOF” is provided on the cage floor for animals that are capable of chewing pelleted food but may be just too small to reach the hopper or may have difficulty rearing up to the hopper for conditions such as arthritis, etc. The veterinary staff may temporarily soften the FOF with water (wet/moist food – “WF”/“MF”) for weanlings, post teeth trimming, etc.
  1. DietGels – There are two types of food gels from Clear H2O that may be provided (https://clearh2o.com/shop-for-research-products/products/dietgel-products.html).

DietGel 76A is a “barrier packed nutritionally complete diet that combines hydration and nutrition in a single serving. A superior alternative to mash diets, it is formulated with purified ingredients, modeled on the 76A maintenance diet formulation. DietGel 76A is flavor-enhanced, resulting in increased consumption.” Tufts CMS tends to use DietGel 76A in cages of mice that were just weaned along with FOF. This gel is dark brown in color.

DietGel Recovery is a “barrier packed nutrient fortified water gel that aids in the recovery of post-surgical, weak, or impaired rodents. Proven to increase survival rates in compromised animals, it is formulated from purified ingredients and provides 60% water, calories and minerals.” This gel is dark tan in color.

  1. HydroGel – Another product of Clear H2O is a “barrier packed non-wetting sterile water gel for animal hydration. 98% pure water, sterile inside and out, gamma irradiated to assure product integrity. HydroGel is particularly effective at supplementing compromised, weaning, or recovering animals and serves well to transition animals” to water bottles (https://clearh2o.com/research-products/hydrogel/hydrogel-2.html). This gel is clear to tan in color.
  1. Tufts CMS may find severely dehydrated rodents due to illness, debilitation, or a shifted water bottle, and the veterinary staff may immediately provide 0.9% NaCl or lactated Ringer’s solution subcutaneously.

Tufts CMS has accounts with various veterinary supply vendors and can order anesthetics, analgesics, antibiotics, surgical supplies, etc. Please submit a Drug Supply and Request form with 5 business days advance notice to request drugs and supplies (Drug Supply and Request form).

Controlled substances used for veterinary medical purposes such as anesthetics, e.g., ketamine, and analgesics, e.g., buprenorphine, can be obtained through Tufts CMS. Please submit a Drug Supply and Request form with 5 business days advance notice to request controlled substances. Following this request, a verification process takes place by Tufts CMS, which includes confirming receipt of a PI Authorization for Controlled Substances form, which must be updated yearly, whenever a new controlled substance is requested, or whenever a new user submits the request. Proper documentation in the form of a Tufts CMS Controlled Substances Log Sheet is required by all investigative staff who obtain controlled substances through Tufts CMS. Please see the Tufts CMS Controlled Substance Requisition SOP for more details on obtaining controlled substances through Tufts CMS.

Of special note, Tufts CMS is now making available a new sustained release buprenorphine that provides 72 hours of analgesia at species specific dosages. This is especially useful handling and stress in rodents following surgical procedures. Please submit a Drug Supply and Request form with 5 business days advance notice to request buprenorphine-SR-LAB for use in laboratory rodents. It is available in 5 ml bottles at a 1 mg/ml concentration. Please see the Buprenorphine-SR-LAB Administration Instructions for how to properly administer this drug.

If an animal is in need of euthanasia or if it is recommended that an animal be euthanized, Veterinary Services veterinary technicians will communicate this to the investigative staff (Tufts CMS Animal Health Checks and Procedure for Requiring or Requesting Euthanasia). Veterinary Services is available to euthanize animals at no cost. Animals with unexpected disease may be submitted to the Tufts Comparative Pathology Services for necropsy at no charge as part of the Tufts CMS surveillance program for potential adventitious agents

Another option for euthanasia is to place cages of mice to be euthanized on the euthanasia racks present in Ziskind 338 or Arnold 432. Animals with a euthanasia deadline from Veterinary Services or sick/moribund animals MAY NOT be placed on the euthanasia rack. These animals must either be euthanized by the deadline by the investigative staff or by Veterinary Services. Animals left on this rack for euthanasia must be afforded the same conditions as all mice housed in this facility.

Euthanasia Rack Requirements:

  • Animals MUST be housed on the euthanasia rack in accordance with the IACUC Policy on Maintaining Rodent Cage Populations
  • DO NOT leave pre-weaned litters without the mother.
  • DO NOT leave sick or dying animals on the rack.
  • DO NOT combine cages of mice that have not been previously housed together.
  • DO NOT stack cages on top of each other.
  • All animals MUST be left with adequate food AND water.

If a PI or investigative staff member needs to euthanize large quantities of cages, i.e., greater than 50 cages, and they would like Tufts CMS to perform the euthanasia, a Technical Service Request form with 5 business days advance notice must be submitted.

The veterinary technicians maintain the procedure rooms located throughout the animal facilities for use by investigative staff. Investigative staff is required to use the procedure rooms for rodent surgeries, unless there is IACUC approval otherwise, and is encouraged to perform nonsurgical procedures in these rooms to avoid transport of animals out of the facilities. Procedure rooms are equipped with benchtop isoflurane machine vaporizers, waste anesthetic gas scavenging snorkels, glass bead sterilizers, scales, and various other types of equipment.

Isoflurane is provided to the procedure rooms on an as needed basis and by request of the investigative staff; contact (617) 636-2674 for supplies. The investigative staff is required to log out the time they used the benchtop anesthesia machines so the appropriate PI can be charged for the isoflurane usage accordingly. If there is any question on how to use the benchtop anesthesia machines, please contact Veterinary Services office at (617) 636-2674 or refer to the Guidelines on How to Use the Bench Top Anesthesia Machines and Portable Isoflurane Machine.

Most procedure rooms are organized into 2-3 stations for multiple investigators to work at a time. The investigative staff must sign up in advance to use a procedure room station so that studies can be planned out accordingly. Signing up in advance for procedure room space is both collegial and courteous to fellow coworkers.

All investigative staff using the procedure room space and equipment are expected to clean up after themselves and refrain from cluttering the procedure rooms with their equipment. Please contact the husbandry staff if storage space within a procedure room is needed.

Rodents are provided with some type of nesting material, in addition to the regular bedding, to foster species-specific behaviors (IACUC Policy on Enrichment of Research Animals). Examples of nesting material include cotton nestlets for mice and Enviro-Dri for rats. These species are able to make intricate bedding areas, i.e., nestlets, which can provide either comfort or privacy, i.e., Enviro-Dri.

On occasion, certain enrichment items may be contraindicated for certain strains/stocks of rodents. Examples of this include nestlets provided in cages with nude mice. Tufts CMS veterinary staff has noted ocular irritation potentially associated with cotton fibers from the nestlets. Nude mice husbandry has since been changed over to dustless bedding (Alpha-Dri) and paper enrichment (Bed-r’Nest), to ameliorate the ocular issues. Tufts CMS veterinary staff will contact and obtain approval from the PI and/or the investigative staff prior to making any changes in the bedding and/or enrichment provided to animals.

If enrichment items are contraindicated for research purposes, the PI must obtain approval with scientific justification from the IACUC to keep enrichment items from the animals’ environment. Following approval, the PI and/or investigative staff must contact the husbandry and Veterinary Services staff to alert them to these changes.

If a PI and/or investigative staff are studying an enriched environment beyond what is standardly provided by Tufts CMS, the investigative staff will be expected to keep a log in the room next to the enriched cages indicated when the enrichment devices has been cleaned and sanitized. Veterinary Services technicians check these logs during their weekly health checking.

Tufts CMS guidelines have been created to aid the investigative staff in best practice procedures and in understanding the expectations of Tufts CMS and to provide further clarification of IACUC policies and federal regulations. Please check back regularly as guidelines are updated and added to the website.

CMS Guidelines