Performance evaluation of a Test&Treat rapid detection kit for the diagnosis of septic effusions in dogs and cats.

Objective: To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of a veterinary point-of-care (POC) luminometer-based kit for the diagnosis of septic peritoneal or pleural effusion in dogs and cats.

Design: Prospective study performed between January 2020 and July 2021.

Setting: University teaching hospital.

The sodium correction factor for dogs undergoing treatment for a hyperglycemic crisis is a 1.6-mEq/L decrease in sodium per 100-mg/dL increase in glucose.

Objective: To determine the sodium correction factor for clinical use in hyperglycemic diabetic dogs.

Sample: Retrospective analysis of 76 hospitalization episodes from 67 different dogs presenting to the University of Georgia Veterinary Teaching Hospital between January 1, 2015, and January 1, 2023.

Methods: For each hospitalization episode, paired blood sodium and glucose concentration measurements were recorded from the time of presentation until glucose concentration was ≤ 201 mg/dL.

Comparison of a commercially available veterinary digital refractometer to analogue refractometer and laboratory chemistry analyzer in the evaluation of canine serum total protein.

Objective: To assess the agreement between measurements of total protein (TP) concentrations in canine serum samples between a commercially available veterinary digital refractometer (DR), an analog handheld refractometer (AR), and a laboratory-based chemistry analyzer (LAB). An additional objective was to assess the effects of various potential interferents (ie, hyperbilirubinemia, increased BUN, hyperglycemia, hemolysis, and lipemia) on DR measurements.

Sample: 108 canine serum samples.

Effects of potential confounding variables on accuracy of a commercially available veterinary point-of-care hematocrit meter in the evaluation of blood samples from dogs and cats.

Objective: To assess the agreement in measurements of Hct values and hemoglobin (Hgb) concentrations in blood samples from dogs and cats between a commercially available veterinary point-of-care (POC) Hct meter and a laboratory-based (LAB) analyzer and to determine the effects of various conditions (ie, lipemia, hyperbilirubinemia, hemolysis, autoagglutination, and reticulocytosis) on the accuracy of the POC meter.

Samples: Blood samples from 86 dogs and 18 cats.

Procedures: Blood samples were run in duplicate on the POC meter, which reported Hgb concentration, measured via optical reflectance, and a calculated Hct value.