My first rotation as an official fourth year veterinary student is Necropsy- where "all our clients are sad and all our patients are dead," as summed up by one of the pathologists. Necropsy (Latin for "study of the dead") is the animal version of an autopsy (which literally translates to "study of self", which is a little weird... think of it as "study of the dead human"). The Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Lab offers necropsy services to clients of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital as well as to the general public. A necropsy is a thorough examination of a dead animal, including the external anatomy and internal organs. We examine everything grossly (using just our eyes and hands), and then take samples to make histologic slides to examine everything microscopically. Sometimes, depending on the case, we also submit samples to look for bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites.
So why exactly do we perform necropsies? There are a few reasons... Sometimes it's just because an animal's owner wants closure about why their animal died. They come home and find the pet dead, or the pet suddenly developed disease and had to be unexpected euthanized. For some people, knowing what happened is an important part of the grieving process.
Sometimes, a veterinarian requests a necropsy because his treatment didn't work, or he recently performed surgery on the animal. In that case, they are looking to see if they did something wrong (did my sutures come loose? did I misdiagnose the disease?). Knowing what went wrong can help improve how they handle cases in the future.
For people with breeding kennels or farmers with herds of animals, a necropsy can help determine if an infectious agent was the cause of death. Knowing that one animal was infected with a certain bacteria or virus can help them change their management protocols, provide treatments to their other animals to keep them from getting sick, or help guide treatment of other sick animals on the farm.
Last, there are the CSI-type cases. I think my neighbor poisoned my dog, or I think the horse you sold me had a congenital defect that caused its death, or my cat died as soon as I switched brands of food so I think the food is toxic. In these cases, we take lots of photos and make sure our notes are extra clear, because it's not unusual for them to end up in court.
Sometimes we can find a cause of death. Sometimes we find evidence of disease, but not necessarily anything that explains why the animal died. And sometimes we come to conclusions like we did today- "We can find no abnormalities in this animal, so clearly it is not dead." A lot of times, death comes without leaving any obvious evidence why- heart rhythm disturbances, electrical abnormalities in the brain, electrolyte problems in the blood... Unfortunately we all too often can't find any particular cause of death.
Aside from necropsies, pathologists also work with biopsy samples, like tumors that have been surgically removed, or diseased tissue, like inflammatory bowel. They are the ones who can tell you what type of tumor that animal had, which has serious implications for the animal's cancer treatment and prognosis.
Overall, I think necropsy has been useful. It's a great review of anatomy, if nothing else. Pathology is also the intersection of clinical science and basic sciences, so we've had to synthesize everything we've learned over the past two years. For example, when we read in the clinical history that a dog has been on prednisone (a steroid) for the past three years, we have to consider what changes that drug would have made in the dog's body (a big liver) and why (because prednisone makes the liver cells prone to storing glycogen). It can be really exciting to make a diagnosis of a strange disease, or to put together a puzzle of how the history, clinical signs, and necropsy findings fit together. But, I'll be glad to move out of the D-Lab and into the hospital, where our patients are alive!
Next rotation, starting Monday, is Emergency and Critical Care.
I'm not the only one who is making pretty looking food things. This morning Megan made this fantastic Rhubarb pie with ginger. Tart, sweet, and a a little spicy. Yum! I ate 1/4th of it after dinner..
I wanted to share the latest beer to come out of the brew pot. This is a beer that D. and I have been talking about for what might be years, but by the time we got to make it he had moved out of the state! Megan and I are going to visit in July (thanks in part to the previous post) so I can still bring a few to share out there, which is good because I think it is the very best thing we have ever brewed. The main feature was 2 oz of jasmine tea from the Tea Source in St. Paul that was included in the process at several points. I believe that some of the natural yeas that is on the tea got into the beer, giving it a fantastic sour tinge reminiscent of a lambic. That could just be from the Bravarian yeast though. The tea it self provides a wonderful floral backdrop and a dryness that does not normally appear in a beer. Beer is usually bitter, but this contains the plesent astringent quality of green tea. 
My second clinical rotation is actually two rotations in one. They decided this year to combine the Emergency and Critical Care rotations into a single two-week block instead of two separate blocks, because so often the animals that come into Emergency end up in the ICU. The two services work so closely that students often end up working on both anyway. Last week, I spent my time on Critical Care.
No, we made Guantanamo from spare parts anyone could find at the Home Depot. And if someone escaped they would escape to Cuba, perhaps one of the safest/sympathetic places they find themselves! Of course the reason they are in cuba on a military base isn't to keep detainees out of America, it was created preciously to keep them out of the American court system.
Watch this (violent) video from X-Men 2 if you don't know what I am talking about. And as if to drive the point home, the RNC has released this web ad, copying the famous "Daisy" ad used against Goldwater in 1964. Who knew that the prisoners in Guantanamo were so dangerous, that they actually have the ability to from a nuclear weapon inside their own bodies, using only the power of their mind. That is the reason we can't have them on US soil! 
Here is Megan's new toy, a KHS 500 road bike! Carbon fork and chain stay, aluminum all the rest. Megan has outgrown her old bike, which will be used as it has been as a comfortable commuter hybrid with fenders, rack, and basket. But, all that weighs almost 40 lbs (with out a backback!) while this one comes in at just above 20. Plus all the benefits of road tires, shifters and brakes. Also known as... much faster!
Aside from necropsies, pathologists also work with biopsy samples, like tumors that have been surgically removed, or diseased tissue, like inflammatory bowel. They are the ones who can tell you what type of tumor that animal had, which has serious implications for the animal's cancer treatment and prognosis.
Atrios once said that he enjoyed the right-wing pet name for the Democratic party, the "Democrat party" because it acted as a filter. Those who insist on dropping the "ic" from the end, in what I assume is meant as some sort of insult, are simply highlighting their own impolite motives and thus, shouldn't be taken seriously anymore.
