A Practical Way To Reduce Venipuncture In Hospitalized Dogs
About this episode
What if the IV catheter your hospitalized dog already has could spare them multiple needle sticks a day without sacrificing lab accuracy? We sit down with Dr. Bryan Welch to challenge a common assumption in small animal emergency and ICU care: that venipuncture is the only reliable way to get serial bloodwork. We talk through a validated push-pull blood sampling technique that uses a peripheral IV catheter to collect repeat samples while aiming to reduce stress, preserve veins, and lower the risk of oversampling and hospital-acquired anemia.
Bryan breaks down the method step by step: flushing with sterile saline, drawing blood back, returning it to the patient, and repeating to clear dead space and reduce dilution. Then we dig into the results that matter to practicing veterinary teams, including how peripheral IV catheter samples compare with venipuncture right after placement and after at least 24 hours of continuous IV fluids and medications. We also clarify a point that trips up a lot of clinicians, statistically significant versus clinically relevant differences, using real examples of when a number changes but your treatment plan should not.
We also cover the practical concerns that drive hesitation, hemolysis, clot formation, turbidity, and smear changes, plus what the study did and did not evaluate. Bryan shares where he would be cautious, including interpreting sodium potassium ratios for suspected hypoadrenocorticism, and offers simple implementation tips for teams trying the technique for the first time. If you want evidence-based ways to improve patient comfort and streamline hospitalized dog bloodwork, hit play, then subscribe, share with your ICU team, and leave a rating and review.
JAVMA article: https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.25.09.0635
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