• Size—12–15 µ in diameter approximatetly 2.5 times the diameter of a RBC.
• Nucleus—lobulated or partially segmented with dark purple, dense chromatin.
• Cytoplasm—smooth, pale pink or light blue, finely granular.

Most of the circulating neutrophils (95+%) in normal animals are segmented forms. Very few are band neutrophils.

• Normal neutrophils have two to four nuclear lobes.
• Five or more lobes indicate hypersegmentation, an ageing change occuring with prolonged exposure to EDTA, glucocorticoid therapy, hyperadrenocorticism or neutrophilias associated with chronic infections.
• Prolonged exposure to EDTA prior to preparing the blood film can produce discrete, clear, cytoplasmic vacuoles in the cytoplasm.

• Diffuse cytoplasmic basophilia—colour of the cytoplasm becomes blue-grey.
• Foamy vacuolation of the cytoplasm—irregular clearing in the cytoplasm produces vacuolation.
• Dohle bodies—one or more, irregular, basophilic cytoplasmic inclusions.
• Abnormal nuclear shapes—irregular lobulation or ring-shaped nuclei.