Liver Disease/Thrombosis

Photo by Jodi Burnham

The study needs liver samples from Deerhounds, either samples taken by biopsy or samples taken at necropsy. We would like liver samples from any Deerhound, but we especially would like samples from 

• Deerhounds that were diagnosed with liver disease of any sort or with portal vein or splenic vein thrombosis. 
• Puppies or dogs diagnosed with a congenital liver shunt. 
• Deerhounds without any liver disease. 

These samples can be taken by your regular vet or a pathologist. We will reimburse you up to $150 towards the cost of sample collection. 

Biopsy samples: If your dog has a biopsy scheduled, please contact us ASAP so we can make arrangements to have tissue samples sent to Dr. Jager.

Necropsy samples: If your dog has passed on, here is what we need:

If you are not having a full necropsy done, then your regular vet can collect the samples. If you are having a full necropsy done, the pathologist can collect them. The club can reimburse you for any expenses up to $150.

If possible, we would like 2 liver samples taken from different locations. Each sample should be approximately ¼- to ½-inch thick so that fixative can penetrate completely, but the sample may be larger in the other two dimensions.

We would also like a sample from each kidney that includes full thickness, from capsule to pelvis.  Typically, a cross section near the middle of each kidney is fine.  The cross section should be only a about 5 millimeters (half centimeter) thick, so that it will fix well.  If there is a lesion visible at necropsy, then please collect a section through the lesion, too.  Samples should be fixed in neutral buffered formalin and stored at room temperature.

Place each sample in a separate container with enough 10% formalin fixative so that the sample is fully immersed. Ideally, the volume of fixative will be many times greater than the sample volume.

Label each container so that the sample can be identified, including at least the dog’s name, owner’s name, and date collected.

Store samples at room temperature – do not refrigerate or freeze! – until shipped to:

Mason C. Jager DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVP (Anatomic)
Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences
Section of Anatomic Pathology
College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell University
T5-010D Veterinary Research Tower
Ithaca, NY 14853

Also, please notify John Dillberger whenever a sample is sent to Dr. Jager by clicking here.

Dogs from the past: Liver samples are routinely taken and stored when a necropsy is done. If you had a necropsy done on a dog that died of a liver problem or thrombus or congenital liver shunt in the past, it may still be possible to get tissue samples from that dog. Please send us the necropsy report, and we’ll take it from there – please contact us to get that ball rolling.

Normal dogs: If you had a dog necropsied whose liver was normal, with no evidence of a thrombus, we’d like tissue samples from that dog, too – please send us the necropsy report, and we’ll get the ball rolling on that, too. Just contact us to let us know.