BACKGROUND: The frequency and characteristics of fractures may vary according to the environment. OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to assess the fractures of the appendicular and axial skeletons in rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and hares (Lepus sp.) presented at a veterinary teaching hospital. METHODS: Medical records and radiographs were retrospectively analyzed over eight years. RESULTS: Twenty-six pet rabbits and five free-ranging hares were enrolled in this study. Twenty-one of them had fractures in the appendicular skeleton, nine in the axial skeleton, and one in both. The fractures were related to traumatic events, such as being hit by a vehicle (22.58%), falling (12.9%), being attacked by another animal (12.9%), and having a paw stuck in a hole (3.22%); 48.38% had an unknown cause. Long bone fractures were found in the humerus (n=2), radius/ulna (n=1), femur (n=5), and tibia (n=12). Fractures involving the distal aspects of the limbs included the tarsus (n=1) and metatarsus (n=2) bones. Except for one rabbit, all of the others had unilateral fractures. Fourteen presented closed fractures, and nine were open fractures. All these fractures were complete, 56.52%% simple, and 43.47% multifragmental. The procedures used included osteosynthesis (42.85%), external coaptation (28.57%), amputation (14.28%), euthanasia (4.76%), and two animals died (9.52%). The fractures of the axial skeleton included the vertebral column (n=6), mandible (n=3), and pelvis (n=2). Five fractures were treated conservatively, and the rabbits were euthanized in four cases. CONCLUSIONS: The fractures resulted from a traumatic episode, which had an unknown origin in most of the cases, involving mainly the appendicular skeleton, being the tibia the bone most affected.

Postmortem examination is an important part in evidence-based medicine to understand deterioration of clinical signs or causes of death in euthanized or deceased individual animals or even populations. The object of postmortem analysis is to improve clinical treatment and therapy, to confirm suspected diagnosis, to manage breeding strategies or to clarify in forensic cases the conditions, which had led to death (neglect, animal abuse). In analogy to virtopsy in human medicine, Diagnostic imaging modalities have been applied in post mortem veterinary medicine, which we call Vetvirtopsy.We hypothesize, that Vetvirtopsy can be used as a method for certain clinical/post mortem questions to improve the reliability of the diagnosis. In some questions, Vetvirtopsy actually can replace conventional necropsy. The aim of this overview study is to compare Vetvirtopsy to conventional necropsy in variable causes of death in animals and to define its possibilities and limitations. Deceased or euthanized pets and wild animals were collected. The methods used are imaging techniques such as postmortem digital radiography, postmortem ultrasound, postmortem computed tomography and postmortem magnetic resonance tomography in combination with image-guided tissue sampling to address the open questions about clinical symptoms or causes of their death. The case series in this project shown that using diagnostic imaging technique is feasible in answering different clinical ante-mortem and post-mortem clinical and forensic questions; however, there is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the diagnostic imaging and sampling under imaging guidance.