Some illnesses in sudden deaths can mimic things like VHD
If the liver is scarred and blood is present in the abdomen then this can make a vet ask questions as to VHD being present or not.
Our beloved Florence (ATB) passed away very peacefully on morning on the 19th December 2003 - I had been playing with her just half an hour before - yet when I went back to her she had gone
She looked as though she was asleep and was in her usual sleeping position - broke my heart it did
Because her passing was so sudden and she had not shown any illness whatsoever, the vet said that she needed to do a PM on her. We agreed to this and a couple of hours later Sally phoned to say that the liver was not right, blood was present etc - she said that it could be VHD
We went into total panic mode - we knew all our buns where vaccinated but they all had to be re-done.
That afternoon Sally and Steve (another vet) came out to our house armed with 28 vaccines (they had had to scrounge vaccines from other vets!) - each and every bun was done and then the waiting started
Sally had sent off samples from Florence to the labs and we had to wait for nearly 10 days to get the results - it wasn't VHD but those ten days where the longest in our lives
Some of our buns have had PM's done by the vet - not a great cost - some have had samples sent to labs, more cost - but if it came to a serious issue then I would want a bun to be sent to the lab directly for them to do a PM on there as it is far more thorough.
I don't like having PM's done - but it's a necessary evil as you have to think of the other buns that you have.
Whilst we waited for the results on Florence's lab results we had to go into isolation - we couldn't go to the vets to collect anything - they had to give us medications through the window of our car! We couldn't take any buns in and we couldn't have people who had buns visit us. All necessary precautions but such a feeling of loneliness and helplessness
We always say that if we are in doubt with any of the buns when they become ill then get them to a vet - we also say this now about having a PM done - the lives of the buns left are imperative and we have to make sure that a death was not caused by something that could be passed onto other buns.