Hemogram interpretation and diagnosis of blood parasites of Canines

Abstract

The organisms that live in the blood of their animal hosts are called as blood parasites and these parasites can range from single-celled protozoa to more complex bacteria and rickettsiae. The transmission varies, depending on the parasite, but often they are transmitted through the bites of ticks or flies. Various blood parasites such as Ehrlichia canis, Babesia canis, Hepatozoon canis and Trypanosoma evansi can cause serious thread in canines. The routine diagnosis in detection of various developmental stages of intracellular parasites with Romnowsky’s staining method would be a tough task of an expert parasitologist. Further, each blood parasite is associated with specific hematological variations and identification of these hematological alterations during routine laboratory screening of blood samples from dogs displaying clinical signs would be essential for diagnosing blood parasitic infections. This manuscript briefly defined various clinical cases of parasitic infections of canines with the aid of haemogram for the accurate diagnosis and differential diagnosis of canine blood parasitic diseases.