ABSTRACT
Many birds are presented to veterinarians only when near terminally ill, and a quick answer is often the difference between life and death. Birds are often limited in their range of expression of clinical signs and many clinicians, through no fault of their own, lack the experience to conduct a thorough physical examination. Diagnostic testing should be done in tiers, with each level focusing on diagnostic effort of the next level. Where appropriate, the clinician should endeavour to start with low-cost, minimally invasive tests before moving on to more expensive and often more invasive tests. Anaemia is usually result of increased loss, increased destruction and/or decreased production of erythrocytes. It is classified as regenerative, non-regenerative, haemolytic or haemorrhagic. The white blood cell count and differential are important tools in assessing a patient’s response to disease or injury. The heterophil is avian equivalent of the mammalian neutrophil. While it has a similar function to the neutrophil, morphologically it appears quite different.
