A case of spondylosis deformans in the defleshed skeleton of a wild coyote and its significance to osteopathologic interpretation.

ABSTRACT

The skeleton of a wild coyote (Canis latrans), collected in Alturas, California (USA), in 1940 and reported to have died of a blowfly infection, was analyzed. The axial components, primarily a series of fused and deformed vertebrae, had classic osteological indications of spondylosis deformans, a trauma-induced disorder. Severe crippling due to a crushing-type strain was identified as the primary pathological condition to which the coyote succumbed, with death hastened by vertebral degeneration and the complicating infection.