Stallions follow the conformation and phenotype of their breed, but within that standard, the presence of hormones such as testosterone may give stallions a thicker, cresty neck, as well as a somewhat more muscular physique as compared to female horses, known as mares, and castrated males, called geldings.
Hemoglobin is an important indicator of general health and used as a diagnostic tool for anemia. White blood cell count provides valuable information in the diagnosis or exclusion of an infection. In hematology, we include both hemoglobin testing and white blood cell count (WBC). Hemoglobin testing in combination with WBC count, performed at the point of care, will add information to the clinical evaluation of the primary care patient.
A second approach is to also determine a whole blood Hb (Hemocue) that is not affected by lipemia due to multiple wavelengths used in the determination. The full CBC battery can then be reported by combining the whole blood Hb with the valid analyzer determinations and calculating the missing indices.