VTNE Laboratory Procedures Practice Questions
Laboratory Procedures makes up 5 of every 50 questions on a Tigertest VTNE practice test. Here are 10 of the 20 questions on it, each with the answer and the reason.
Updated by the Tigertest team. Based on the AAVSB VTNE content outline approved March 2023. The real exam passes on a scaled score of 425; 70% here is a practice target.
1. What is the normal packed cell volume range for a healthy adult dog?
- A.15 to 25 percent
- B.37 to 55 percent
- C.24 to 45 percent
- D.55 to 70 percent
Answer: B. A dog's PCV is about 37 to 55 percent; cats run lower at roughly 24 to 45 percent. Values above the range suggest dehydration or polycythemia and below it anemia.
2. After spinning a microhematocrit tube, which part is used to measure total protein by refractometer?
- A.The buffy coat layer
- B.The clay at the sealed end
- C.The packed red cell column at the bottom
- D.The plasma above the buffy coat
Answer: D. The tube is broken just above the buffy coat and the plasma is placed on the refractometer prism. Lipemia and hemolysis in that plasma falsely raise the reading.
3. Which blood tube is used to collect a sample for a complete blood count?
- A.Lavender-top (EDTA)
- B.Green-top (heparin)
- C.Red-top (no additive)
- D.Blue-top (sodium citrate)
Answer: A. EDTA preserves cell morphology and prevents clotting, so it is the anticoagulant for hematology. Heparin distorts leukocytes on a smear, and a red-top clots for serum chemistry.
4. Why must a blue-top sodium citrate tube be filled exactly to its line?
- A.To make the centrifuge run balanced
- B.To keep the sample from clotting faster
- C.To keep the 1:9 citrate-to-blood ratio
- D.To stop the red cells from lysing
Answer: C. Coagulation tests depend on one part citrate to nine parts blood; an underfilled tube has excess citrate and falsely prolongs PT and aPTT.
5. Where on a stained blood smear is the differential white cell count performed?
- A.At the feathered edge itself
- B.Along the long side edges
- C.In the monolayer near the feathered edge
- D.In the thick body at the start of the smear
Answer: C. The monolayer, just behind the feathered edge, has cells spread one deep so morphology is readable and the distribution is representative. The feathered edge itself concentrates large cells and platelets.
6. An increased reticulocyte count in an anemic dog indicates:
- A.A regenerative anemia
- B.Anemia of chronic disease
- C.Bone marrow aplasia
- D.A nonregenerative anemia
Answer: A. Reticulocytes are immature red cells released when the marrow is responding, so their rise shows regeneration, typical of blood loss or hemolysis. A nonregenerative anemia has few reticulocytes.
7. A blood smear shows many band neutrophils. This finding indicates:
- A.A normal finding in puppies
- B.A stress (glucocorticoid) leukogram
- C.Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
- D.Inflammation with a left shift
Answer: D. Bands are immature neutrophils released early when tissue demand is high, so a left shift points to active inflammation or infection. A stress leukogram has mature neutrophilia without bands.
8. A dog's CBC shows neutrophilia, lymphopenia and eosinopenia. Which pattern is this?
- A.Eosinophilic leukemia
- B.A stress (steroid) leukogram
- C.A degenerative left shift
- D.A physiologic (epinephrine) leukogram
Answer: B. Glucocorticoids, whether from stress or prednisone, cause mature neutrophilia, lymphopenia, eosinopenia and often monocytosis. An epinephrine response causes lymphocytosis, especially in cats.
9. A dog has elevated BUN and creatinine with a urine specific gravity of 1.008. This suggests:
- A.Postrenal azotemia only
- B.Renal azotemia
- C.Prerenal azotemia
- D.Normal kidney function
Answer: B. Azotemia with isosthenuric urine means the kidneys cannot concentrate, so the azotemia is renal. A prerenal (dehydrated) dog would concentrate its urine above 1.030.
10. Which enzyme is the most liver-specific in dogs and cats?
- A.Creatine kinase (CK)
- B.Aspartate aminotransferase (AST)
- C.Alkaline phosphatase (ALP)
- D.Alanine aminotransferase (ALT)
Answer: D. ALT leaks from damaged hepatocytes and is liver-specific in small animals. ALP rises with cholestasis, steroids and bone growth, and AST and CK also come from muscle.
Practice all 20 laboratory procedures questions, and the rest of the 200-question bank, in the free VTNE training sets. Questions you miss come back until you have mastered them.
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