Clinical Pathology (Bloodwork)
We have a limited number of tests that we can provide in house, such as hematocrit, urinalysis, and blood glucose. We can make and stain blood smears. For most other clinical pathology requests, we send samples to a reference lab by overnight delivery. We highly recommend using a laboratory that specializes in animal, rather than human, blood samples. We only refer investigators to labs that have well established practices for validation of tests for research animal species.
If you have a need for any hematology, serum clinical chemistry, or cytology, our staff will be pleased to recommend a reference lab and test codes to meet your needs, package and ship your samples according to IATA/DOT requirements, and answer any clinical pathology questions you may have.
- help selecting the most appropriate tests from the list of available tests
- guidance on which blood tubes to use
- blood collection
- often we have microtainer blood tubes available to give you at no charge from a reference lab
- guidance on optimal collection techniques (hematology labs will refuse samples if there are visible clots in the sample, because clots make the cell count results inaccurate)
- helpful tips on how to get the most data out of tiny rodent blood volumes
- recommendations on how to establish normal reference values to use in your study
- training and instruction on how to make optimal blood smears