Establishment of Reference Ranges for Coagulation Tests for Dogs in Sri Lanka

Coagulopathy is an important, common systemic clinical syndrome caused by snake envenoming in the world. The reference ranges, so far, used in the Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) for clinical evaluation of dogs with coagulation abnormalities were from western countries which not the ideal is considering the geographical differences. Therefore, in this study have been established reference intervals for coagulation tests (PT, aPTT, CT, and BT) for dogs in Sri Lanka. Selection of dogs for suitable blood samples was done during January to June in 2012. Apparently healthy dogs that were brought to VTH for routine medical attention, routine general check-up, vaccination, and routine elective surgical interventions i.e. ovariohysterectomy or castration, were used for this purpose. First, a general clinical examination was performed on each selected dog and those who qualified were blood sampled for laboratory tests namely, Full Blood Count (FBC), Total Protein (TP), Albumin (Alb), Fibrinogen, Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and Aspartate aminotransferase (AST). The blood samples from these 45 dogs were used to establish reference ranges for PT, aPTT, CT and BT. At the end of the period, 45 dogs were selected which were clinically healthy, with normal FBC and liver function test values. The reference intervals obtained using dogs for PT, aPTT, CT and BT were 7-11 seconds, 1122 seconds, 3 -12.5 minutes and 0.5-5 minutes, respectively. These values are of extreme importance in order to treat, manage and monitor snake envenomed dogs better.