Introduction

Welcome to CVM 6925, Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory! This is a laboratory course designed as an introduction to diagnostic testing and laboratory techniques that are essential for “day one” competencies in a general veterinary practice setting.   You will be actively engaged in a series of hands-on learning activities that take place in a traditional laboratory classroom (VSB 325), in a virtual teaching setting, through discussion-based debriefing sessions.  Every effort has been made to make these sessions case-based learning activities that guide you through the journey of selection, practice, and clinical integration of common clinical tests such as fecal examinations, urinalysis, culture and sensitivity, hematology, and many more!

The course is set up as a “flipped classroom”. This means that for each of the laboratory units (denoted as a module), this book will guide you through a pre-laboratory reading. Each reading has “knowledge checks” along the way to help hone in important aspects of the reading or laboratory exercise to ensure that you have grasped the important points or can answer the most commonly asked questions that arise during the laboratory procedures.  At the end of each reading, you will be guided back to the Canvas site to take a pre-laboratory/end-of-module quiz. Since we only have a small amount of time to carry out the in-class exercises, you must come prepared to class by reading the pre-laboratory readings, completing the knowledge checks, and completing the pre-lab/ module quizzes. These laboratory exercises and virtual events take tremendous coordination and resources to execute, therefore, additional time outside of the laboratory sessions to complete the activity is not available.