Bone marrow

 This morning I learned way more about canine bone marrow than I ever wanted to know. According to today's 2nd witness, Dr. Douglas Lymon, a board-certified veterinarian pathologist, a normal healthy dog's bone marrow is 60 % fat. The order in which a starving dog uses up its stores of fat is this:

subcutaneous fat tissues
abdominal fat
muscle tissue
mandibular muscles (jaw)
skeletal musles
legs
heart
nervous system
ocular fat pads (causing eyes to sink into head)

and finally at the end stage, impending death, the bone marrow.


Dr. Lymon examined 3 dogs from Muddy Paws and performed the autopsy. I'm sorry, I guess "necropsy" is the correct term for an animal, but I prefer autopsy, because what the doctors have described as the procedure is so similar to a human autopsy (I'm a Patricia Cornwell fan).


Dr. Lymon's findings:
Room 15 Animal # 10: pitbull/shepherd mix weighed 18 lbs at autopsy, should have weighed 30-35 lbs. This dog had inanimate material in its stomach and intestines. (The dog was eating its empty food and water bowls!) Bone marrow fat % was .087% rather than the normal 60%.

Room 15 Animal #7: 13.5 lbs at autopsy, should have weighed 20 lbs. very very thin. no internal abnormalities upon examination. rear dew claws long & curled. feet encrusted with feces. 1.8% bone marrow fat rather than normal 60%.

Room 10 Animal #13:  5 lbs. on autopsy, should have weighed 7 lbs.


Cause of death of each animal: long term calorie deprivation. Starvation was cause of death for all 3 dogs I examined.