La! A triolgy of pig skull cleaning!
OK. This is going to be short (I hope), because I need to get to bed.
Tools that I added or forgot about:
Well, I took my tweezer and used it to both clean out the "connective tissue" from around the teeth and scrape the tartar off of the teeth. It worked out pretty well. The top surfaces of the molars (those above the gum line, anyway) are still kinda icky, but the crevasses are tiny enough and deep enough that I can't get at them unless I use a fine needle, and while I may be perfectionist in nature, I have been trying to learn how to stop. I will see how the bleaching works on those areas, and then I'll make a decision on how anal I want to be.
Sinuses suck no matter what species you are.
In my zeal to get the cartilage and other junk out of the nasal cavity, I did some damage to the sinuses at the back of the nose. This doesn't really concern me much, since you have to look in the skull to see the damage. But they (the sinuses) also had tissue of some kind or another, and it made it a bitch to clean. I just ran a ton of water, scrubbed with the toothbrush, and hoped. It looks clean now, so I really hope it is.
Let it cool a bit first.
Tissue is much easier to remove from crevasses and channels when it has had a chance to cool down. In the skull, I worked at a bit of tissue (either blood vessel or nerve, it was hard to tell) and kept pulling out teeny, tiny bits. I got a little frustrated and moved to cleaning a different part of the skull. When I returned to the same area later, I was able to pull out most of the tissue obstructing the channel in one large chunk. Learning this was A Good Thing. It made cleaning the futzy little tiny places much easier.
Oh, the arm bone's connected to the.. Wait, maybe it's the leg bone?
I am not sure I have one humerus and one femur anymore. I think I have a pair of one or the other. If you didn't know it, your (or at least, the pig's) humerus and femur are not solid from end to end. They actually have joins in the bone, so that the end going to your small bones can pop off and the "ball" end of the ball & socket joint can pop off too. All you have to do is pry apart the join, which is cushioned with cartilage.
That happened to one of the bones before I got it, which made me think it was a humerus, because it was smaller than the other. But when I was clearing out the cartilage from the other bone, pop! went the end. That's when I realized that they were the same type of bone. When I checked a little more, I discovered that one was definitely for the right limb and the other was definitely for the left limb. I will have to look at femurs and humeruses (humerii?) online to determine what I have. My initial guess is femur. I'll let you know if that changes.
At any rate, the skull, vertebrae and other bones are as clean as I can make them at the moment. It only took me about... ten hours or so? I wasn't working exclusively on them the entire time, but it was a hefty bit of effort. The next step is bleaching, which won't happen until I get the hydrogen peroxide solution (the kind for bleaching hair has been suggested). For now, the bones are drying on my counter.
For the moment, other than the bones, I have torn-up hands and nails to show for my efforts. Lotion for me tonight!
Tomorrow, if I'm lucky, I will chronicle the bleaching process, which will probably be a lot shorter than any of the previous entries. I will also comment on the physical peculiarities of my pig skull (cuz there are a few) and reminisce about the process. Betcha can't wait.
Tools that I added or forgot about:
- slotted spoon
- small bowl (for teeth)
- beading tweezers
- cuticle remover/pusher
- big scrubby brush
- newspaper (yeah, I know, not strictly speaking a tool, whatever)
Well, I took my tweezer and used it to both clean out the "connective tissue" from around the teeth and scrape the tartar off of the teeth. It worked out pretty well. The top surfaces of the molars (those above the gum line, anyway) are still kinda icky, but the crevasses are tiny enough and deep enough that I can't get at them unless I use a fine needle, and while I may be perfectionist in nature, I have been trying to learn how to stop. I will see how the bleaching works on those areas, and then I'll make a decision on how anal I want to be.
Sinuses suck no matter what species you are.
In my zeal to get the cartilage and other junk out of the nasal cavity, I did some damage to the sinuses at the back of the nose. This doesn't really concern me much, since you have to look in the skull to see the damage. But they (the sinuses) also had tissue of some kind or another, and it made it a bitch to clean. I just ran a ton of water, scrubbed with the toothbrush, and hoped. It looks clean now, so I really hope it is.
Let it cool a bit first.
Tissue is much easier to remove from crevasses and channels when it has had a chance to cool down. In the skull, I worked at a bit of tissue (either blood vessel or nerve, it was hard to tell) and kept pulling out teeny, tiny bits. I got a little frustrated and moved to cleaning a different part of the skull. When I returned to the same area later, I was able to pull out most of the tissue obstructing the channel in one large chunk. Learning this was A Good Thing. It made cleaning the futzy little tiny places much easier.
Oh, the arm bone's connected to the.. Wait, maybe it's the leg bone?
I am not sure I have one humerus and one femur anymore. I think I have a pair of one or the other. If you didn't know it, your (or at least, the pig's) humerus and femur are not solid from end to end. They actually have joins in the bone, so that the end going to your small bones can pop off and the "ball" end of the ball & socket joint can pop off too. All you have to do is pry apart the join, which is cushioned with cartilage.
That happened to one of the bones before I got it, which made me think it was a humerus, because it was smaller than the other. But when I was clearing out the cartilage from the other bone, pop! went the end. That's when I realized that they were the same type of bone. When I checked a little more, I discovered that one was definitely for the right limb and the other was definitely for the left limb. I will have to look at femurs and humeruses (humerii?) online to determine what I have. My initial guess is femur. I'll let you know if that changes.
At any rate, the skull, vertebrae and other bones are as clean as I can make them at the moment. It only took me about... ten hours or so? I wasn't working exclusively on them the entire time, but it was a hefty bit of effort. The next step is bleaching, which won't happen until I get the hydrogen peroxide solution (the kind for bleaching hair has been suggested). For now, the bones are drying on my counter.
For the moment, other than the bones, I have torn-up hands and nails to show for my efforts. Lotion for me tonight!
Tomorrow, if I'm lucky, I will chronicle the bleaching process, which will probably be a lot shorter than any of the previous entries. I will also comment on the physical peculiarities of my pig skull (cuz there are a few) and reminisce about the process. Betcha can't wait.