Anne says:
>I'm wondering if a good portion of that cost was actually lab fees because
>you vet wanted to send out body parts for analysis?  Next time you might
>want to ask if this is the case, and if you skipped the lab work what the
>cost would be for the vet himself to take a look.  Sometimes vets will do
>the necropsy for free as a learning experience for the vet if no lab costs
>are involved.
 
There really is no substitute for a full autopsy, with tissue samples
forwarded to a pathologist for microscopic examination.  Gross autopsies,
while they are expedient, in my experience, when performed by the average
practitioner (FML vet excepted, of course, don't yield a lot of
information.  They tend to yield off-the-cuff analysis and misinformation,
which can then be reported back to the FML, etc.
 
If you are going to have an autopsy, make sure a pathologist is involved.
Patholoigst have years of training invested in looking at necropsy samples
which is invaluable in these cases.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM
[Posted in FML issue 3202]