Hematology

The most conspicuous peculiarity of the gerbil is a high proportion of red cells with polychromasia, basophilic stippling, and reticulocytosis. This is particularly obvi­ous in young gerbils up to 20 weeks of age, but occurs throughout life. This may be a reflection of the short half-life of erythrocytes (approximately 10 days), com­pared with other species. The predominant peripheral blood leukocyte is the lymphocyte, with a 3:1 to 4:1 ratio over granulocytes. Gerbils are normally lipemic (hyper- Cholesterolemic) on standard diets, especially adult males.

Pathology of Laboratory Rodents and Rabbits, Fourth Edition. Stephen W. Barthold, Stephen M. Griffey, and Dean H. Percy. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.