The Equine Necropsy: A Sensitive but Important Topic

A necropsy is not something most horse owners contemplate until faced with the death of a horse.
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Equine Necropsy
Microscopic examination (also referred to as histology) is conducted by a veterinarian who has undergone post-graduate residency training in pathology, similar to human medical pathologists. | Photo: iStock
A necropsy is not something most horse owners contemplate until faced with the death of a horse. And upon losing an equine companion, most owners don’t immediately think, “does my horse need a post-mortem exam?” While not all horses warrant a necropsy, in this article we will aim to educate horse owners before they are faced with an urgent need for information about necropsies.

The necropsy procedure is also referred to as a post-mortem examination (PME), or autopsy, though the latter is generally reserved for humans. A necropsy involves multiple procedures; the first step is a “gross examination” (what can be see without a microscope) of the inside and outside of the body. Prior to the gross exam, the examiner will read the case history, which should include details such as the length of illness, signs the animal displayed, any other animals affected, vaccination history, possible exposure to toxins, etc. Although the necropsy is a visual exam, it’s also a multisensory experience: Do tissues feel normal by palpation? Is there an unusual smell? Based on case history and gross observations, the examiner might choose to save tissues for microscopic examination and select further tests to run. For example, he or she might elect to carefully examine the spinal cord in a horse that could no longer stand, but not in a horse that had difficulty breathing. He or she might request bacterial cultures of the lung in a horse with clinical and/or gross evidence of pneumonia but not in a horse with suspected liver failure.

Microscopic examination (also referred to as histology) is conducted by a veterinarian who has undergone post-graduate residency training in pathology, similar to human medical pathologists. The examiner might find changes in organs that he or she did not observe grossly. If microscopic changes elucidate a process that went clinically or grossly undetected, the veterinarian might request other tests. For example, evidence of acute liver damage might warrant toxicologic testing for known liver toxins. The range of tests includes bacterial culture, virus isolation, fecal examination for parasites, serology (for detection of antibodies that indicate exposure to a disease-causing pathogen), molecular biology (for identification of pathogens that might be present in very low numbers), mineral analysis, and toxicologic analysis for specific toxins. The pathologist will consider all of these results to arrive at a diagnosis–a summary of the case–to report to the client.

The reasons most owners choose not to pursue a necropsy upon a horse’s death include cost (particularly after a prolonged and expensive illness), the desire to retain the body for burial or cremation, and the lack of an available veterinary professional to perform the procedure. Necropsy costs range anywhere from $130-500 or more, depending on the lab and in-state/out-of-state status. Discuss your options with your veterinarian before ruling out a necropsy

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