The veterinary practice requires a myriad of tools and equipment for a variety of patients with a wide range of needs.  One of these tools is the vet microscope, an instrument that is essential for the examination and analysis of samples taken from the animal, usually used for diagnosis or study.  The vet microscope provides all the necessary magnification power in order for a veterinarian or technical assistant to come up with a reliable and accurate analysis of animal tissues and other materials.  This is very important in order for professionals to determine the correct treatment or course of action, especially in the case of sick animals or animals that need special care.

There is no single vet microscope that will usually cover everything that will be required in this field of practice.  Usually, there are several types that may be used depending on the requirement or need.  However, there are specific vet microscopes that often meet the general requirements of the job, especially for analysis and examination of samples taken from the animal.

Types of microscopes that a vet will need

Low power microscope
Not all examinations performed using microscopy requires very high magnification powers.  There are some that will only need a low power microscope, such as an instrument that has 10X to about 40X magnification power.  This will usually suffice for the examination of hair and skin samples, tissue samples and foreign materials such as wires, fibers, food, etc.

Basic compound microscope
For general use, the compound light microscope is an excellent choice.  Veterinarians will find that this is an all purpose microscope that can handle a variety of magnification needs.  Compound light microscopes are capable of processing images using high magnification power.  Instruments can have a low magnification power of 40X and a high of 400X magnification power.  This is the type of microscope that a vet will need for all around magnification requirements, particularly for examining live or stained samples.

Dissecting vet microscope
A dissecting vet microscope, as its name suggests, is the type of microscopy that is designed to handle dissecting jobs.  This is because it offers more room between the stage (where the specimen is placed for observation or cutting) and the objective lens.  This room allows the technician or doctor to manipulate the specimen for moving, cutting or slicing.

A dissecting vet microscope is a stereo microscope.  Unlike most other types of microscopy, this instrument is capable of producing a stereo image of the specimen, which appears to the observer as 3-dimensional.  This microscopy technique is more preferred because the specimen is easier to handle due to the presence of depth.  In terms of lighting, the dissecting vet microscope is often used with top illumination, which is usually the most effective lighting technique for use during dissection.  Since a view of the opaque surface of the specimen is often required for slicing and cutting, the light is able to reflect from the surface through the lens and the eyepiece, providing a solid image that offers less distraction.

Biological vet microscopes
Biological vet microscopes are designed to handle biological samples and provide the necessary magnification and type of microscopy that is often required in related tasks.  Usually, biological vet microscopes use the phase contrast microscopy technique, which results to good quality high contrast imaging.  Biological vet microscopes are highly capable of providing a view of minute variations in cell phases and thus, often used for the observation and analysis of live cells.  In some areas of the veterinary practice, a doctor or technician will have to handle living cells and tissues.  With a biological vet microscope, there is usually no need to stain (and thus kill) the cell, which allows viewing of the specimen in its natural state.  This is often the type of microscope used for animal breeding and for the identification of parasites and other microorganisms.

Types of microscopy illumination techniques often used by vets
Aside from phase contrast microscopy, there are also several illumination techniques that a vet must use for handling samples.  These techniques include brightfield, dark field and fluorescent microscopy.  The brightfield technique is characterized by light manipulation wherein the sample appears dark against a bright background.  This is often used in many types of microscopy and is excellent for viewing transparent samples.

The dark field illumination technique is quite the opposite of brightfield, wherein the sample appears brightly lit against a black or dark background.  What this creates is a very sharp, high contrast image which is excellent for use when viewing microorganisms.  Fluorescent microscopy, on the other hand, utilizes UV light instead of the usual lamp or natural light.  This is to excite the electrons in the molecules of the sample, which then prompts the object to reflect light in different colors.  This type of microscopy is excellent for use in veterinary medicine because of the high resolution imaging it produces.  This makes it highly effective for viewing stained samples of microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses.