Scenario # 1

“Monday Morning” using SoftMouse DB in the Mouse House

I started entering the new litters for the Lab in SoftMouse. My routine is to go into Matings, find the mating and click New Litter, add date and submit. Then I click on the New Litter and add my comment as to what to do with this new litter and hit save. Back to the Matings and add the next litter, repeat. Done. Wow that is always so fast, love it!

The vet has arrived to look at the colonies. She is really nice. I have SoftMouse open. She asks what I am up to. I show her a few basics of SoftMouse and tell her that this is why I am so efficient at my job. I could not look after 43 mouse lines as well as I do without SoftMouse. She is very impressed by the little bit I have shown her, but more importantly, she is impressed with how I am using the database and what it can do for my colony management. She asks is that why so many people are using the Software at the university “it looks so great”.

I went on to explain that before SoftMouse I spent a lot of my time planning my work week, making lists, deciphering spreadsheet information for projects and now I can calculate breeding efficiency quickly, my lists are generated for me in SoftMouse and my work week is planned in 10 minutes.

SoftMouse is always becoming more user friendly, faster and more powerful to see the colony virtually. The reseacher group I work for has saved thousands of dollars by having a database that everyone can access and plan experiments, so we are breeding for experiments, not breeding and trying to figure out what to use the mice for after the fact. My salary is used for working in the colony not duplicating files, trying to pull out colony information from a spreadsheet and spending lots of time trying to figure out what information in the spreadsheet means.

Visit SoftMouse Database and discover the colony management benefits of a digital Mouse House in the mobile cloud.

Scenario # 2

Tagging in SoftMouse DB

Go to the Litter list in SoftMouse DB. Overdue or due weanlings are what I am tagging today. They have been weaned by the barrier staff and now I will input them into the system, give them tag numbers and wean them according to when the staff weaned the pups.

Click SID to select the litter I wish to add and wean. Select action drop down, add mice, select males add the total number of pups in the litter. Select edit pups. Select the males that will become female, chose to edit sex, select female and apply and stay. Add tag number to start sequence, select all check box, apply and stay. Select action, wean pups, click the calendar and choose the correct date. In the hood I open the cages, tag and clip the mice. Clips go into tubes I have labelled. Done. Select apply and move. The mouse are caged properly. Done, love that the system has a default for caging and is intuitive enough to evenly cage my mice, just the way I would do it in reality, very cool. Next set of cages to tag. Repeat steps above.

Scenario # 3

It is great to be able to plan breeding and workflow from where ever we choose

I use SoftMouse when I am performing my work but I have not gone into detail that my colleague who manages / assists my workflow for her 14 mouselines from the comfort of her living room. Mostly on Thursday and Monday mornings with a laptop logged into SoftMouse and a coffee beside her. I cannot have food or drink in the lab or my mouse house rooms so it is great to be able to plan breeding and workflow from where ever we choose. SoftMouse is available to us 24/7 and because I am in the mouse house colonies all week the data is always current. As close to real time as possible.

Scenario # 4

How I use SoftMouse DB?

I am logged into SoftMouse every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday from 9:30/10 a.m. until 3/3:30 pm. I am in the system each day under at least two user names per day. I use most aspects of SoftMouse daily and check for updates from my colleagues in the system using the filters.