An easy-to-Miss Blood Smear Finding

Have a cool one for you today!

Blood smear from a thrombocytopenic horse. 🐴

Well well well, what are those doing in there?! This explains her thrombocytopenia....

These are...(drum roll please)... Anaplasma phagocytophilum!

This is a tick borne rickettsial disease which often causes thrombocytopenia and non-specific clinical signs.

Here you can see a morula inside of the neutrophil. If you’re not looking closely you might mistake these for an extension of the neutrophil nucleus. 🧐

I LOVE finding these and having an answer to give to the vet. One of the reasons infectious disease cytology is my favorite!! 🥰