High-Yield Points:
• Largest gland in body. Lies almost entirely on the RIGHT side in ox (pushed by rumen).
• Bovine liver is poorly externally lobated: right, left, quadrate and caudate lobes are recognized, but fissures are shallow.
• The caudate lobe/process bears a renal impression from the right kidney. This is not unique or diagnostic of ruminants because a renal impression is also present on the carnivore liver.
• Gall bladder PRESENT in ox, sheep, dog (ABSENT in horse).
• Porta hepatis: entry of portal vein, hepatic artery; exit of bile duct.
• Liver biopsy site (cow): Right 11th intercostal space, on a line from the tuber coxae.

Bovine Liver

The liver in cattle is the largest visceral gland (~5 kg in adult cow). It is displaced almost entirely to the right side of the abdomen because of the massive rumen. It lies obliquely against the diaphragm from the 7th rib (cranially) to the last rib (caudally) on the right side.

Lobation: Compared with the deeply fissured canine liver, the bovine liver has shallow external divisions into left, right, quadrate and caudate lobes. The caudate region has a renal impression from the right kidney, but the presence of a renal impression is not uniquely bovine.

Surfaces: Diaphragmatic (parietal) and visceral. The visceral surface bears the porta hepatis — the entry/exit point for portal vein, hepatic artery, hepatic duct, lymphatics and nerves.

Bile pathway: Hepatic ducts → cystic duct → gall bladder (storage) → bile duct → opens at major duodenal papilla. The horse lacks a gall bladder (continuous bile flow).

Liver Biopsy: In adult cow, biopsy needle is inserted in the right 11th intercostal space, at the intersection with a horizontal line from the tuber coxae, directed cranio-medially toward the opposite elbow.