Species Guides
Species is not a label on a reference interval; it changes which marker to use, what a result means, and which confounders apply. These guides are organised around the decisions clinicians actually make.
By species
| Guide | Focus |
|---|---|
| Dogs | Stage-based testing, decision-changing assays, and what to skip |
| Cats | SAA dominance, retrovirus rules, thyroid–renal interaction |
| Puppies | Maternal antibody, susceptibility gap, vaccination timing |
| Kittens | Panleukopenia emergency, six-month retrovirus retest rule |
| Seniors | Monitoring consistency, urine and blood pressure as the skipped variables |
The three species differences that change diagnoses
- Feline acute-phase biology. SAA carries the feline response; CRP rises modestly. A canine-marker strategy applied to a cat understates inflammation.
- Maternal antibody. It protects, blocks vaccination, and confounds antibody tests — differently for puppies and kittens, and with a defined retest window for kittens.
- Thyroid and kidney in cats. Hyperthyroidism raises filtration and can mask azotaemia; treating it can unmask renal disease. T4 and renal parameters belong in the same plan.
What each stage is really asking
| Stage | The question |
|---|---|
| Puppy / kitten | Is this animal infected now, and is it protected? |
| Adult | Does this episode need a specific treatment decision today? |
| Breeding animal | When, and is she pregnant? |
| Senior | Is the known disease progressing, and has something new appeared? |
Where to go next
- Clinical discipline hubs: infectious, inflammatory, endocrine, cardiac, renal, pancreatic, reproduction
- Setting-based guidance: veterinary clinic, reference laboratory, breeding kennel, shelter, research, mobile practice
The Author’s Take
Position. Species guides are where a manufacturer demonstrates whether it understands practice, and most do not, because species differences are usually handled by relabelling a canine page.
Reasoning. The three differences above are not cosmetic: each changes a diagnosis. A cat’s inflammation read with CRP, a kitten declared FIV-positive at three months, or a hyperthyroid cat treated without checking renal function — these are errors that a well-written species page prevents and a relabelled canine page does not. The commercial corollary is that species content is hard to copy convincingly: a competitor can duplicate a menu table in an afternoon, but writing credible feline guidance requires people who work with cats.
Disclosure. Clinical guidance, not a performance claim.
Sources
- Reference to be added.
- CLSI EP28-A3c — species- and age-specific reference intervals.
Frequently asked questions
- Why organise testing by species rather than by marker?
- Because the clinical question arrives with a patient, not with an analyte list. Species changes the answer in specific ways: the feline acute-phase response is carried by SAA rather than CRP, kittens carry maternal antibody that makes retrovirus results provisional, and thyroid disease interacts with renal function only in cats.
- What changes in senior animals?
- Testing shifts from diagnosis to monitoring. The dominant requirement becomes consistency — the same markers on the same platform over time — because the value is in the trend, and a method change destroys comparability.