05/19/2021
⚠️ Warning! ⚠️
Gore ahead!
This is one of the super cool experiences we gain from school. Every year in May we complete a thorough hands on exam of a horse, then a dissection on that horse. These horses are donated to our school for our learning experience by generous people who have an understanding of when it is time for the animal, as well as the importance of hands on learning. I was lucky enough to give this sweet old guy a massage last summer, before his old age really caught up to him over this winter. He was graciously donated by a fellow student who wanted to know what really was going on inside.
In the photos I have attached, I show the most stand out pictures from this dissection because I’m sure between my classmates and I there is at least one hundred photos that were taken.
Stinger was in his early-mid 30’s, with a mostly unknown history. He was an old rope horse, who we believe in his old age had began to lose his sight as he was quite spooky and you had to announce your presence to him. Once we began the dissection after a peaceful passing with the aid of a vet, we quickly discovered some crazy things as soon as his hide was removed.
Stinger had was quite sick, with the fascia of his body yellowed with toxins. We also seen that he had major damage to his latissimus dorsi muscle, it had torn and regrown with a large triangle shaped hole. He also had cancer within his gut in the peyers patches along the intestines. They were swollen and darkened, and we were able to compare his healthy ones to the cancerous ones. Once we got deeper into the muscles, it was found that he had broken his first two ribs, and the first rib had actually flipped over and never did settle into its proper place. This caused an encapsulated abscess, which pushed inwards into the body. It then pushed its way into the brachial artery where the infection travelled throughout the body. We found large gobs of infection within many of his major arteries. The craziest part was that it made its way into the heart. When we did the cross section on the heart we found large areas of the infection that were caught on the heart strings, and became one with the heart. We also found found within the stomach lots of bots, which were the probable cause of the HUGE ulcer in the glandular region of his stomach.
I could keep going on about this for days. It is absolutely amazing what we can find when we can literally take a deeper look. Within the pictures attached I have added short descriptions of what you are seeing.
Thank you again to the wonderful people who allow us these crazy experiences!