Ugly Blood

We've been doing WBC differentials in class this past week, and we got to look at toxic blood on Friday. There was a lot of singing in class, but also a lot of "Oh wow!" and "Is that even a seg?!"

Those are, in fact, segmented neutrophils, and they really are showing toxic changes. The cell on the left has prominent Dohle Bodies, and the one on the right has some basophilia and foaminess, which is caused by vacuolization of the cytoplasm. The red blood cells are showing rouleaux, crenation, and some Howell-Jolly bodies (the name of those lead to more singing).

So, what does that all mean? Really, the cat that this blood came from is so sick that her cells are degrading. The Dohle bodies aren't especially noteworthy in a cat (say "BOO" to a cat and it'll produce them), but the rest are signs of extreme inflammation. The toxicity still seems subtle to me because I'm learning, but apparently this is the type of smear that would, as my instructor puts it, "make the vet poop his pants" in real practice. Good to know.