Tackling The Veterinary Terminology: Suffixes (-opsy)

Remember the Spelling Bee? Big words are easier to tackle when you understand how they're put together. Veterinary terms are composed in the same way. Just like with other words, the main parts of a veterinary term are a prefix, a root, and a suffix. The difference is that they typically come more directly from Greek or Latin.

The suffix is the bit that will tell you about what procedure, condition, disease or disorder you're dealing with.

-opsy [əp-sē] from Greek - medical inspection, examination

Frankly, it's just as easy to remember the words where this suffix is used, because in veterinary medicine, there are only two.

While the meaning of the suffix is quite innocent, the words it helps form are no candidates for popularity contest.

Biopsy is the removal of a small, often microscopic, piece of tissue for examination. 

The reasons aren't always as scary as suspected cancer, but biopsy is typically done when your dog has a serious problem and examining the affected tissue is the only way to get a conclusive answer.

Biopsy punch. Image dvm360

Any tissue might need to be examined, from suspicious lumps, bumps and lesions, to skin, liver or intestinal tissue. Jasmine had biopsy of her liver, and biopsy is also the only conclusive way of diagnosing inflammatory bowel disease.

Laparoscopic biopsy. Image UF Small Animal Hospital

The good news is, that not every biopsy is looking for cancer. And, sometimes, cancer might be suspected, and the biopsy results come back with one of the most wonderful words in the medical language—BENIGN.

The procedure is somewhat invasive. But only a tiny bit of the tissue is typically needed, and advanced technology, such as endoscopy, can be used. And it will tell you conclusively, what is going on with the tissue.

Necropsy, the veterinary equivalent of autopsy, is the examination of the inside of a dead body, used to determine the cause of death.

While it's clearly too late to fix anything, sometimes might make sense to perform necropsy and find out what exactly happened.

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