Essential haematology for companion animal vets in first opinion practice

Haematology is an integral part of veterinary medicine, providing useful baseline information in situations such as routine screening tests or pre-anaesthetic blood tests, as well as diagnostic purposes. In-house haematology analysers are becoming more readily available for first opinion practices, allowing practitioners the benefit of rapid complete blood count results, which is particularly useful in cases of critical illness or other time-sensitive situations. However, practitioners must exercise care when interpreting these complete blood count results, because of there is a possibility of unreliable results arising from sample and patient factors, or from analyser factors, as in-house analysers can lack the vigorous quality control procedures that are performed by reference laboratories. A good quality blood smear examined alongside analyser results can help assess analyser accuracy and provide important information about cell morphology. Good sample handling and smear-making technique are important, as is a good understanding of smear interpretation. This article describes the important features of automated analysers, alongside the preparation and use of a good quality blood smear.