Considerations for extracting blood from turtles and tortoises: venipuncture sites and anticoagulants

Objective. Evaluate different venipuncture points and the use of two anticoagulants to obtain blood samples in turtles. Materials and methods. Eighty-two turtles of the species Trachemys callirostris, Podocnemis unifilis and Chelonoidis carbonaria were sampled. Three venipuncture points were evaluated: subcarapacial venous sinus, dorsal coccygeal vein, and jugular vein. Two anticoagulants were tested: sodium heparin and EDTA. Results. The jugular vein was the best place to practice venipuncture as the blood samples obtained were free of hemodilution and enough volume to carry out a blood profile. In contrast, samples from the other venipuncture points were usually hemodiluted. Blood samples from C. carbonaria stored with EDTA (40 μl/ml of blood) showed haemolisis, which was not observed using sodium heparin (100 UI/ml of blood) as anticoagulant. Conclusions. The jugular vein is the most recommended venipuncture site for the extraction of blood samples for clinical purposes. Sodium heparin was the best anticoagulant to store blood samples due to the fact that it does not induce haemolisis in any sample.