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Chapter 12 Laboratory Skills 229

their owners. Owners are usually less distressed if
Learning Exercises they do not see the actual blood collection
procedure.
• Make a “recipe” card for the fecal set‐up 3. Blood collection must be done properly to ensure
procedure your school or workplace uses. reliable laboratory results.
Refer to it until you know how to set‐up a fecal 4. Blood samples are often taken from the jugular vein
sample properly by memory. in order to save the peripheral veins for IV
• Make flash cards with pictures of ectoparasites catheterization.
and endoparasites. This will help you study for
the exam.
Equipment Set‐up

The best blood sample that best reflects the patient’s
Blood Collection state of health is one that goes directly into a blood col-
and Handling lection tube (Figure 12.14). The easiest tubes to use are
vacuum sealed and engineered to pull in the right
amount of blood for each size of tube. There are differ-
Blood collection is a two‐person process: one to restrain ent types of tubes that contain different anticoagulants
the patient and a venipuncturist. Restraint techniques within. They are color coded by their caps and are
during venipuncture are described in Chapter 8. The selected based upon the blood chemistry being tested
venipuncturist will usually be the technician or the veter- for. There are two tubes commonly used in a veterinary
inarian but knowing the steps involved will be of great practice. A purple or lavender topped tube and a red
help to whomever is drawing the blood sample. topped tube. The “purple tops” contain EDTA which is
Things to keep in mind:
a good all round anticoagulant and will work for most
1. Handle the patient quietly and gently with tests that require whole blood and plasma. Whole blood
minimum restraint. Most patients don’t know what has all of the components exactly as if flowing through
is going to happen but if you put them into a strong a patient’s veins. Plasma is the liquid portion of whole
restraint hold it will raise their blood pressure and blood and is obtained from a purple top tube by putting
their stress level. Most fear free clinics will have a it in a centrifuge and spinning it until the solids are
policy on how long a hold lasts and how many tries packed at the bottom of the tube, usually taking
per patient before using other means to collect 10 minutes.
blood. Stress can actually alter blood results. “Red topped” tubes also contain a vacuum but no
2. Some patients do better away from the owner, so ask anticoagulant. They allow the blood sample to clot and
for permission to take it to the treatment area. so are only used if a serum sample is required. Serum is
Patients are usually more cooperative away from used for most blood chemistry and serology tests. The

(a) (b)

FIGURE 12.14 Blood drawing sets.