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UF Animal Forensic Conference 2024: The Veterinary Forensic Autopsy with Courtney Valerio
Episode 5622nd May 2024 • The Animal Welfare Junction • A. Michelle Gonzalez, DVM, MS
00:00:00 00:21:39

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We are in person at the 2024 Animal Forensic Conference in Gainesville, Florida! Dr. G will be interviewing several of the speakers to give our audience a bit of the knowledge gained through the presentations. We will be releasing each interview individually to allow our listeners to find topics of interest.

Dr. Courtney Valerio, Veterinary Forensic Pathologist, breaks down the process of a forensic necropsy and describes the information that can be obtained when investigating an animal crime or suspicious death.

We would also like to invite our listeners involved in animal cruelty investigations to visit and join the International Society for Animal Forensic Sciences https://isafs.org/

Mentioned in this episode:

Keep it Humane Podcast Network

The Animal Welfare Junction is part of the Keep It Humane Podcast Network. Visit keepithumane.com/podcastnetwork to find us and our amazing animal welfare podcast partners.

Transcripts

DrG:

Our next guest is Dr.

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Courtney Valerio, veterinary pathologist.

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So thank you for being here

and welcome to The Junction.

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Courtney Valerio: Thank you for having me.

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DrG: Can you tell us a bit about

your background and what drove you

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to the field of veterinary forensics?

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Courtney Valerio: So I have a

bachelor's degree in animal and

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poultry sciences, and then I worked

on a farm for a little bit after that.

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And I decided I wanted to attend

veterinary school, and during vet

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school, I really liked pathology.

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I liked that it was so visual,

and I could see disease.

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like actual disease.

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It didn't feel like I was, um,

guessing, uh, which sounds awful.

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Um, but for example, taking imaging

or, or things like that, we're always

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kind of doing our, our kind of best

guess, and oftentimes you are correct,

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but what I really like about pathology

is you can actually see the process.

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So I went into general practice

for a little bit and, through that

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and after some time there, I began

a pathology residency and upon

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completion of my residency, I then

went through a fellowship here at UF

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in forensic medicine or veterinary

forensic pathology, I should say.

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So that's kind of the background of that.

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Um, I particularly like pathology

because it is, the cases are very

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interesting, but they also have a

component that not only helps animals,

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but also helps people, basically.

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DrG: Kind of like a higher purpose?

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Courtney Valerio: Yeah, yeah, um,

and I think they're very important.

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I think it's important to, to see these

cases, for these cases to go through

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the judicial system, or even just for

more cases to, to be brought to us.

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Sometimes they just, for

other circumstances, don't

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get to go through the system.

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But, I think that it basically brings

kind of awareness to this because we've

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known for years and years and years

that there's a link between animal

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abuse and child abuse and elder abuse

and spousal or partner, um, violence.

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So , sometimes through, these

cases, we may be able to help

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other animals or help other people.

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So others may come to me and

be like, Oh, your job is so,

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depressing.

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Uh, and really, and it is, um, but

you really have to compartmentalize

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and think about the bigger picture.

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Um, and as far as what you're doing,

not only for like specifically

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this animal, cause you are giving

it a voice at the end of the day.

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Um, but for any others too.

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DrG: Yeah, I get that as well, that people

will say, like, how can you sleep at

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night, you know, with all these things

that you see, how can you go along,

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and I feel like it's, I'm looking from

here on forward, right, I'm trying not

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to dwell on what happened, I'm trying

to figure out what happened, so that

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I can get justice, and like you said,

keep animals and the community safe.

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Courtney Valerio: Very, very true, yes.

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And also, just for the sake of Science,

you know, um, every case I see, I don't

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automatically have like this image of

this terrible person unless we sometimes

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we give video or photos whatever.

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Um, but really, you know, in, in the quest

for the truth, a lot of times it is sad,

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but other times it can be exonerating.

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Um, for example, we've had cases

of suspected poisoning and it

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turned out the dog had cancer.

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So, you know, we were able to exonerate

everybody and be like, it's okay.

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You know, you don't have like this

sociopath in your neighborhood.

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This dog, unfortunately, just

passed away suddenly from that.

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So, , it can be, it can definitely

be used for, for both sides.

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DrG: So what's going to be the main

difference between a forensic autopsy

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versus like a general autopsy that

a regular veterinarian would do?

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Courtney Valerio: So in the veterinary

world, it is a bit different than

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the human world in that respect.

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Um, Because I, of what I assume

in the human world, I'm sorry if

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there are, uh, human pathologists

being like, no, that's not right.

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Um, but in, in the vet world

anyway, um, it is broken up

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into a further niched area.

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Uh, and so in, in general pathology,

really the cases that they

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would receive have no, no legal

matter kind of attached to them.

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They're, usually not cases of

suspected cruelty unless there's

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just out of necessity, um, they

would be given to that pathologist.

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But in, in general terms that type of

veterinary pathology, veterinary anatomic

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pathology, is used for disease control,

disease surveillance, things of that

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nature, or someone who maybe, known their

dog has died suddenly and they're pretty

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sure, you know, it's, it wasn't the

neighbor, but I want to know what happened

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may come to a, we call them in our,

, sort of world of diagnostic pathology.

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I, you know, maybe it came

through them for that purpose.

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And so from, forensics, when we receive

something, um, Really, it's because there

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is a suspected criminal or civil legal

matter that may need to be, uh, resolved

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or may come up or, or is very evident.

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And because of that, our documentation

of those cases is very intense.

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So, for example, in regular

diagnostic pathology we wouldn't

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take intake, tons of intake photos.

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We wouldn't take tons of, um,

photos of external exam , or of

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organs or anything like that.

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Usually it's, uh, very limited.

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And maybe photos would be taken

if there was like a, a very

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specific lesion or finding.

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But other than that, it's

not really, um, done.

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There's no chain of custody

associated with that body

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like there is for our cases.

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And the written reports of

ours are very different than

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the reports that are typically

written for diagnostic pathology.

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So ours, we hit every organ, normal,

abnormal, and you just really wouldn't

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do that in regular veterinary pathology.

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Usually you just hit the

points that are abnormal.

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And so it's really the documentation

that it, it kind of boils down to, um,

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and how different that those two are.

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That's not to say that we don't

ever see disease in our cases,

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kind of like what I said before.

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Sometimes even though we do all

this documentation, all this sort of

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stuff, you know, it's just becomes

an endogenous disease that we find

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and that is the cause of death.

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Um, so that's why it's important to have

the training of your residency before you

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try to take on the forensic aspect of it.

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DrG: And it's, I don't think that

a lot of people understand how

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intense a residency in pathology is.

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I guess you have to see a lot of cases

and then, see a lot of normal and a

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lot of abnormal, and then get prepared.

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Now, that said, a lot of rural areas may

have veterinarians that are, and they

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don't, not have access to a pathologist.

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So is it useless for a regular

practitioner to learn how

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to do forensic autopsies?

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Or is there a value in that?

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Courtney Valerio: That's a

really tough question, honestly.

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And it's because different Stages

of decomposition of these bodies can

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very easily mimic disease processes

that are often seen in the cases

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that we see in forensic pathology.

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So for example, um, if a body is,

is decomposed and mummified, it

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can appear like it's emaciated,

but it never was in life.

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or a phenomenon called livor mortis,

which is just the settling or pooling

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of blood within the vessels after

death, um, may appear like bruising.

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So it gets very tricky, uh, for

a general practitioner to maybe,

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um, overcome those obstacles.

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That being said, a fresh body.

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Um, maybe, um, especially if it's

something very obvious, like a gunshot

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wound or a stab wound, you may be able

to kind of forward that examination.

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But it's a big ask, I think,

for those general practitioners.

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They already have to do, you So much,

um, on top of that, you know, in human

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medicine, you have your anesthesiologist

and you have your radiologist and you

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have your dentist and the veterinarian

is Almost in a public eye, there's

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an expectation that they would be

all of these things, and it's a lot.

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Um, I remember feeling like, oh my

god, you have to be a jack of all

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trades in, in general practice.

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So to add on to that stress, you

know, to be able to then perform

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these autopsies to this really high

level, um, is, is to me very daunting.

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I mean, that would be like Asking

me now to, you know, do this

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complicated, surgery, maybe take

out a lung lobe or something, you

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know, it's, I think it's a big ask.

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Um, unfortunately I can see

why the ask is there though.

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But we're really hoping that through

programs like mine or even the veterinary

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forensic master's program, at least you

can get an idea, and you can be exposed

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to different things and that may help you

if you're in an intensely like rural area

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where there's not a lot of resources.

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With that being said, please email

us or call us anytime with questions.

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We're more than happy to,

to talk to practitioners and

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we do it quite, quite often.

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I know that there's not that many

of us, but with this fellowship

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program, we're real, just really

hoping to, to change that.

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And, uh, to kind of like pull

some people that might be like,

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Oh, I kind of am interested.

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Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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It's cool over here.

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So, so we're really hoping to,

to expand the, the field in that

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way to help with that burden.

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DrG: Most of the time what people want to

know with a forensic autopsy is cause of

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death, but there's a difference between

cause of death and mechanism of death.

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So can you tell us what both things mean?

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Courtney Valerio: Yes.

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So cause of death is basically the

initial action that has been the impetus

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for, , all these tiny, uh, little be

physiological or biochemical derangements

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that end up to be the mechanism of death.

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So in other words, uh, blunt

force trauma to the head.

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So let's say someone hit a dog,

uh, with a baseball bat in the head

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and the dog is immediately dead.

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The cause of death would

be that blunt force trauma.

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The mechanism of that death

would be traumatic brain injury.

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And that's kind of kind of the difference.

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Another example would be a dog

with an intense hookworm burden.

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So hookworm will just suck blood,

they, consume quite a bit of blood.

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So if you have a very large

burden, it will result in a

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depletion of blood from the body.

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So the hookworm would be the cause

of death and the mechanism of death

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would be the anemia or the lack of

red blood cells in the body that would

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cause, multi system organ failure

and reduced oxygen throughout the

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entire body that would lead to death.

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DrG: What's the process for

doing a forensic autopsy?

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Courtney Valerio: So it's

quite an intense process.

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Usually our autopsies take

us at least two hours.

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If there are any external wounds

they will take much longer.

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And that's again due to all the intense

documentation for each individual wound.

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Uh, so the process basically starts with

us reading our intake forms and that

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will come with history of the animal, if

any, the immediate history, how it was

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found, any kind of witness or statements

from animal control or law enforcement.

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And then we would start

with our exam of the body.

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So that's an external exam.

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We look at the fur, we look at the

nutritional condition, we look at

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the feet, the claws, the hooves, the

teeth, um, all of that good stuff.

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And then we will take any, insects that

may be on the body at that time for a

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preservation or attempt to rear them.

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And then we move on to our internal

exam, which includes full skinning of

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the body to see the subcutaneous tissue

and then opening up the chest cavity and

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the abdominal cavity to view the organs.

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Each organ is then removed and

photographed, and then we do a more

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intense dissection of each organ, the

gastrointestinal system is completely

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removed and it's opened up, we get

to see, you know, what did it eat?

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How is it digesting?

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Is it creating formed

feces, things like that.

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All of these steps and all of these

organs are photographed as well.

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And, then we end with the collection

of very small pieces of those organs,

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and we collect them for two purposes.

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Say we have liver, we'll collect

a piece of liver for fixation, so

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we're stopping the rotting of that

tissue, and we may later use that

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tissue for microscopic examination.

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And then we'll also take a second

piece of liver for fresh tissue.

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So if we ever want to attempt to culture

bacteria from the liver or fungus or if we

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want to use that tissue for toxicological

exam or testing then we'll use that.

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The fresh tissue we freeze and we have a

locked evidence locker in which we have

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like freezers and empty space for room

temperature stuff and things like that.

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Each case we kind of evaluate if we want

to go further, further meaning microscopic

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exam and, or that ancillary testing.

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Uh, and about, I would say

about half to two thirds of

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our cases get microscopic exam.

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And then ancillary testing.

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So ancillary testing just means

any other thing outwith of gross.

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So what we can see with our eyes

at microscopic exam of the tissue.

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So that would be toxicological testing.

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It could be a urine analysis, snap tests

for basic, like feline diseases of the

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blood, like FELV, FIV, things like that.

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After we've finished all of that,

we try to put all these pieces

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of our, of our puzzle together.

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And hopefully we do get an answer.

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Hopefully we do get, why dead?

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Or, or why euthanized?

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Um, sometimes we don't.

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Uh, and that can be dependent on tons

of variables including where in the

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decompositional stage the body's in.

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If we do need to do like, say, tox

testing, can the municipality afford that?

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Or is the owner willing to go that

far, or do they want to stop here?

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So those variables can

come into play sometimes.

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Sometimes we don't think that that

testing is really going to yield

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anything , or we don't really

have a direction in which to go.

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Toxicological testing isn't like, It's

not like CSI where it's like, Oh, I

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sent it to tox, test for everything.

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You know, we still need to have

an avenue, you know, to go down.

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And sometimes we, we just don't,

we don't want to be like blowing

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800 for, for all this stuff.

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So it can be, it can be tricky sometimes,

but we, we really do try, and we

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really take a lot of time to think

about these cases, talk about these

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cases, uh, to help us find an answer..

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DrG: Is there any point at which you

would say that doing a forensic autopsy is

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useless because of too much decomposition

or too much damage, or is it always best

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to do an examination and see if there

is any information that you can get?

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Courtney Valerio: So I'll answer this

with something that I was taught really

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early in my residency, and you're

not going to know unless you test.

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And the same thing goes for these bodies.

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Even though they may appear to not have

any value, or testability, if they're

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bones in a bag, I think still we can

take a look at them and see what we see.

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We can even, bones in a bag, for example.

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Uh, we may have some fur on those.

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We may know the color or one of the

colors of the dog, or cat, which we

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would be able to tell from the bones.

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Are there any fractures?

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Is there any evidence

of a healed fracture?

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Things like that, that we still can glean.

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Um, we can even use very decomposed

skeletal muscle for that may be

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like a little bits hanging on,

we still may be able to glean

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something, you know, from that.

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We still can see, are there barbiturates

in the, in the skeletal muscle of

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this animal may have been euthanized.

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Um, so I think it does behoove

us to look at these bodies

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in, in no matter what stage.

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DrG: If we have investigators, , animal

control officers or veterinarians

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that are listening to this episode

and they're, and they're interested

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in having your services, how

should they preserve the body and

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what is the best way to submit it?

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Courtney Valerio: So it's

a really good question.

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When you practice in Florida,

things decompose quite quickly.

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Um, me coming from, uh, my residency

in Missouri, it didn't, you know,

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in the winter at least, you know,

it didn't happen that fast, but for,

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definitely for here, it, it can.

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So the best that I can tell you

is, for, for those that can drive

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to our lab, if you're able to, in

the first like 48 hours of finding

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the body, especially if it's

fresh, then that's great.

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Refrigeration is fine.

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If it's going to take longer or if you're

going to ship that body to us, frozen

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is probably going to be a bit better.

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We do prefer fresh bodies.

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However, we get frozen

bodies very, very frequently.

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There are

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artifacts that can happen

as a result of freezing.

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It doesn't preclude finding lesions

in the body or anything like that.

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It doesn't, you know, prevent

us from really finding answers

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that we were going to find anyway

if we were just given it fresh.

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Although it's kind of the

secondary, it's often the

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necessary way to to store a body.

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I think any really any way else.

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is, is really not it.

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Um, you definitely don't want to leave

a body out in the sun or outside, and

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this is just because of two things.

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The body will continue to decompose

even if it's cool, but of course

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in Florida where it's very hot,

we will get that very quickly.

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And then also because of scavenging.

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Scavengers will go for the

natural body holes and attempt to

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extract organs from those holes.

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And because of that, sometimes we won't

see all the organs or, the skin will start

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to decompose that it begins to form a hole

and then a scavenger will go in that way.

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Um, so sometimes then it can

be like, was this a stab wound?

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You know, was this a gunshot wound?

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Is it a hole from a scavenger?

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You know, sometimes we don't know.

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So it, In any case, refrigeration

or frozen, you can always call us

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as well, but if the body is outside,

please get it in, please double

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bag it, and put a tag on the bag.

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Another thing that's really

important for these bodies, not

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only for storage, chain of custody.

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So immediately right when you

pick up that body, a chain of

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custody form should be started,

and then continue on with the body.

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So the original form goes with

the body wherever the body goes.

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So we receive a lot of chain of custody

forms from, uh, different municipalities.

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Sometimes we have to create a

form when the body comes to us.

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And that's just, in the grand scheme

of things, it is just best practice

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to start the chain of custody form

right as you collect the body.

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DrG: How can investigators get a hold

of you guys if they want to submit a

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sample or a full body for an autopsy?

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Courtney Valerio: So, on our

website for the lab, we have Dr.

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Stern and his email and his phone

number, and Me, my email, my phone

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number, and that's really the

easiest way to, to contact us.

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DrG: Excellent.

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Well, thank you very much for

giving us your time and sharing

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your knowledge and thank you for

everything that you do for animals.

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Courtney Valerio: Thank

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DrG: you for having me.

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I've enjoyed my time.

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