Motor vehicle-related trauma significantly contributes to death statistics of dogs. There are however few documented reports on the pathological aspects of such cases. This paper describes 155 fatal cases of dogs victimized by motor vehicle accidents. In 138 (89.0%) of the 155 dogs hit by motor vehicles there were lesions that could explain the death or reason for these dogs being euthanatized. These lesions included vertebrospinal trauma (43 [27.7%]), rupture of parenchymal organs (40 [25.8%]), cranioencephalic trauma (28 [18.1%]), rupture of hollow organs (16 [10.3%]), rib fracture with subsequent laceration of parenchymal organs (15 [9.7%]), and diaphragmatic rupture with displacement of abdominal viscera into the thoracic cavity (10 [6.4%]).
diseases of dogs; trauma; motor vehicle accident; traumatology; pathology