The Virtual Mouse Necropsy

This is it!!! Perform a Mouse Necropsy on the Web!!!

So put on your latex gloves, prepare your autopsy board, and go get your saline rinse, because it is time to perform a virtual mouse necropsy.


Disclaimer: This necropsy guide is intended only as a Guide. It does not claim to provide all approved terminology for tissues and organs. Nor is it responsible for the accuracy of its diagrams. Please report all suggested improvements to the authors shown below.

Necropsy Sheet

Instruments, Fixatives, and Other Handy Devices

Necropsy Terms

Step 1: Your Very Own Mouse Starter Kit

Step 2: Your First Incision

Step 3:Search for the Elusive Lymph Nodes and Many Mammary Glands

Step 4: Journey Into the Abdominal Cavity

Step 5: The Difficult Urogential System

Step 6: This Takes Guts (Intestines, Stomach, Spleen, Pancreas)

Step 7: Lobes of the Liver

Step 8: Just Kidneys

Step 9: Take a Deep Breath, You Are Almost Done (Lungs)

Step 10: Careful Not to Break Your Heart

Step 11: If I Only Had a Brain

References

Some Tissue Trimming Procedures

This is the first interactive mouse necropsy site on the web. Designed to aid the researcher in learning and practicing the correct methods of retrieving tissues and examining mouse anatomy, this site is not only educational, but fun too!! Obviously, the procedures within this site can be useful in the necropsies of other species as well. So don't feel limited if you work with rabbits, hamsters, rats, etc. You still might learn something by browsing our pages.

The links can be visited in a few different ways. By starting with the Step 1:Your Very Own Mouse Starter Kit, you can perform the necropsy step by step. Or if you are only interested in a specific organ system, just click your mouse (no pun intended) on the link that most suits you. Within each link are detailed explanations of the necropsy process and close up labeled pictures of major organ systems. Feel free to explore at your leisure.

Also included on this site are tools to aid the researcher during a real world necropsy. Print out the necropsy sheet which contains a check list of steps, room to diagram, and area to write observations. The necropsy sheet is a no frills link, so feel free to print it out and use as is. There is also a list of terms you might find useful when trying to describe lesions and make observations. And last, but not forgotten, is a page devoted to instruments, fixatives, and other handy devices that will prove to be a "must" for any necropsy.

Quick Note: If you are planning on printing any of these pages, go ahead and set the top and bottom margins for 0.25". For a few pages, a top and bottom margin of 0.5" will ease any further frustration when printing. As you run across those special pages, a note will notify you of a margin change. Have Fun!!!


Site designed, written, and selected pictures illustrated by Erin Parsoneault, inspired by D.E.Devor-Henneman, and edited/mentored byDr. J.M.Ward