In Search of Answers

There is nothing more frustrating than knowing an animal has a disease but being unable to identify it. All the best tests in the world -- examination, bloodwork, urinalysis, fecals, imaging (x-ray, ultrasound, CT/MRI), biopsy -- may not uncover the root cause of a pet's illness. Sure, there may be abnormalities, specific or non-specific findings that provide tantalizing clues. A veterinarian's experience combined with the animal's history and symptoms enables her to interpret the test results to come up with a logical working diagnosis and treatment options. However, there are limitations to every test and also often financial limitations that prevent a definitive diagnosis from being reached. Treatment trials may fail to bring about resolution, and when palliative care (pain management and supportive care increasingly called "hospice") no longer relieves the animal's suffering, humane euthanasia is sometimes all that remains.

Even though it may be obvious to the veterinarian and pet owner that it is time to end the animal's suffering, we are left with the nagging question of "why?" In medicine, there is one final test available to answer this important question: necropsy.* Examination of the internal organs with the naked eye paired with microscopic evaluation of each bodily tissue is essential to reaching a diagnosis and/or explain cause of death.

In the past few weeks, two separate families have committed to post-mortem examination of their deceased pets.  I am so impressed by my clients' dedication to fully understanding their animals' disease that it's all I can think about this week. After weeks or months battling an incompletely understood ailment, a pet's necropsy can provide closure to the family as well as the veterinary team. Moreover, the information gathered during a necropsy advances veterinary knowledge in general. The 2007 pet food recall involving melamine adulteration, for instance, depended on post-mortem evaluation of fatally affected pets. An understanding of birth defects, cancers, toxicities, epidemics and the aging process from post-mortem analysis has lead to better diagnostic tests as well as medical and surgical treatments.      

I wish to extend a grateful thank you to animal owners everywhere who, in their time of grief and loss, make that difficult decision to have a necropsy performed on their deceased pet.

* Veterinary professionals use the term "necropsy" instead of "autopsy" to describe post-mortem evaluation of an animal.