Tests

Plant, GI content, vomitus, water, or source material

One or more of the following: 

• 2 cups to 1 quart of GI content
• 20 mL water
• 500 g feed
• 2-4 flakes hay
• 10 g bait material

One or more of the following: 

• 30 g GI content
• 10 g bait (source material)
• 40 g forage or hay
• 20 g liver
• 10 g crop contents
• environmental samples (swabs)

One or more of the following*: 

• both 0.5 mL EDTA whole blood and 1 mL serum (both sample types are required)
• 5 g fresh liver
• 50 mg fresh liver biopsy (approx. 3 Tru-Cut samples, no fluid added)
• 500 g feed

For birds, 0.6 mL EDTA or heparinized whole blood is adequate.

*Serum selenium provides current day levels, while whole blood selenium indicates selenium status over a longer period of time. TVMDL can interpret both serum and whole blood selenium concentrations for cattle, horses, sheep, birds or white-tailed deer. For goats, TVMDL has reference values for serum or plasma only.

Blood, serum, and urine samples are tested on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays with a turnaround time of 7 days. Tissue and feed samples are tested on Mondays and Thursdays with a turnaround time of 10 days.