For Dr. Paige Schmidt-Rios, a field necropsy is more than an investigation into why one animal died. It is an opportunity to see the disease process firsthand, challenge a presumptive diagnosis, evaluate how cattle are being managed and give producers a better understanding of what is happening inside their animals.
Schmidt-Rios, a private practitioner in south-central Kansas who works primarily with cow-calf operations and feed yards, has developed a simple rule for getting the most information from a carcass: perform a systemic necropsy every time.
“I actually do them the same every single time,” she says. “It’s just become a force of habit.”
That consistency helps prevent the suspected diagnosis from determining what gets examined. Even when the history points toward a particular disease, Schmidt-Rios opens the entire carcass and evaluates all of the organ systems.
Don’t Stop at the Suspected System
A useful field necropsy doesn’t necessarily require extensively dissecting every organ. Instead, Schmidt-Rios recommends getting your eyes on the entire animal and looking for gross pathology that can point you toward a diagnosis or indicate where additional diagnostics are needed.
“A systemic necropsy, for me, is always necessary,” she says. “We can’t always just open up the thorax, look at that and get our answer.”
That broad approach can reveal pathology that wasn’t associated with the clinical signs observed before death. It can also uncover unexpected findings that change the direction of the investigation.
Schmidt-Rios generally starts with the abdomen, where she can quickly evaluate the abdominal organs, then moves to the thorax. In beef cattle, particularly feed-yard cattle, she pays close attention to the heart and lungs because pulmonary and cardiac pathology is common. She works systematically through the carcass, examining organs and opening those that warrant a closer look.
The exact sequence is less important than developing a routine and following it consistently.
Don’t Skip the Heart and Lungs
When evaluating the heart, Schmidt-Rios removes it and examines the ventricles for differences in wall thickness. She also looks at the papillary muscles.
For the lungs, she makes a point of examining more than the immediately visible surface. After opening the thorax, she manipulates the lungs to get a look at the opposite side and as many lung lobes as possible.
The goal isn’t to turn every field necropsy into an exhaustive pathology exercise, but to avoid overlooking information simply because it requires an extra step.
That same philosophy applies to the rest of the carcass: look first, then decide what needs a deeper examination or diagnostic sample.
Let the Dead Animal Evaluate the Living Herd
One of the most useful aspects of a necropsy may be what it reveals about everything that happened before death.
Lesions can help determine whether cattle were being appropriately identified and treated while alive. If the post-mortem findings don’t match the presumptive diagnosis, that can prompt a closer look at how employees are recognizing sick cattle. Findings can also help evaluate whether treatment protocols are producing the expected results.
“Sometimes necropsies don’t tell you anything and you’re just more confused,” Schmidt-Rios says. “But that can still be an answer and can change the diagnosis as well.”
In other words, the value isn’t limited to getting a positive diagnosis. A necropsy can help eliminate possibilities and identify questions that need to be answered with additional diagnostics.
Bring the Producer to the Dead Pile
Schmidt-Rios also sees field necropsies as an underused teaching opportunity.
When appropriate, she likes to bring producers and employees to the dead pile and walk through what she is finding. Seeing the actual lesions can connect clinical signs with the underlying disease process in a way that a conversation alone may not.
“They usually learn so much and they have so many questions,” she says.
Those questions can become a starting point for employee training and help producers better understand why veterinarians make particular treatment or prevention recommendations.
Build Confidence and Make It a Habit
For young veterinarians, Schmidt-Rios sees another benefit: performing a thorough necropsy can help establish credibility with clients.
As a young female veterinarian working around large cattle, she says she hasn’t always walked onto a ranch or feed yard assuming everyone was already confident in her abilities. Demonstrating that she can efficiently and confidently perform a necropsy has helped change that.
“If I can jump out of my pickup and do a necropsy very efficiently, they have a lot more confidence and respect for me,” she says.
Her advice is straightforward: practice.
Necropsies also offer a relatively low-risk place for young veterinarians to develop those skills. Learning how to position the carcass, use body weight and leverage, and develop an efficient sequence makes the procedure easier physically and more repeatable. Schmidt-Rios emphasizes using the entire body rather than relying on upper-body strength, particularly for smaller veterinarians working on large carcasses.
Ultimately, her approach is simple: make a systematic necropsy a habit. Open the carcass completely, examine every organ system, investigate abnormalities, collect appropriate samples when indicated and remain willing to challenge the original diagnosis.
The payoff extends well beyond the animal on the table. A systematic necropsy can provide diagnostic information, evaluate treatment and personnel, teach producers and employees, and help the veterinarian make better herd-health decisions.
“Always do a systemic necropsy, always look at all the organ systems,” Schmidt-Rios says. “It can tell you a lot.”
To hear more from Dr. Schmidt-Rios, along with other veterinary experts, on the newest technique and technology advancements in bovine health, tune into the latest episode of The Bovine Vet Podcast:
