By The Pawline veterinary teamVeterinary-reviewed by Alastair Greenway, BVM&S MRCVS · 25 July 2026
Reference range · pg
2126.2
Reference
21–26.2
Direction
Both unusually high and low values carry meaning.
This is the conventional reference interval. Your pet’s own report may print a slightly different range — always read the value against that. Sign in to see your pet’s value on this strip.
MCH is the average amount of oxygen-carrying pigment in each red blood cell. It's read together with MCV and MCHC to characterise the type of any anaemia, and it tends to track closely with cell size.
MCH (mean corpuscular haemoglobin) is the average amount of oxygen-carrying pigment (haemoglobin) packed into a single red blood cell. It is one of the red-cell indices, and because larger cells generally hold more pigment, MCH tends to move in step with MCV (cell size). On its own it is a supporting figure rather than a headline; its job is to help characterise an anaemia alongside the other indices.
MCH is the average amount of oxygen-carrying pigment per red cell — read with MCV and MCHC to characterise the type of any anaemia.
Reading a low or high result
A low MCH (less pigment per cell) usually accompanies small, pale cells and points, like a low MCV, towards iron deficiency and chronic blood loss — the classic "microcytic, hypochromic" anaemia. A high MCH typically accompanies large cells (a regenerative response) or can be a sample artefact: anything that falsely raises the measured haemoglobin — such as red-cell destruction releasing free pigment, or a lipaemic (fatty) or haemolysed sample — inflates MCH. So a high MCH is often checked against the sample quality before being taken at face value.
In chronic disease
MCH is followed as part of the index set to track the character of an anaemia over time — a low MCH persisting with iron-deficiency anaemia, or shifting as the marrow responds. Because it largely mirrors MCV, it rarely adds a separate message, but it corroborates the size-based picture and helps flag the artefacts that can distort the red-cell numbers.
Cat vs dog
MCH runs lower in cats than dogs, in keeping with their smaller red cells, so reference ranges are species-specific. The low-MCH-means-iron and artefact-raises-MCH logic applies to both. As with all the indices, it is interpreted alongside the RBC count, haematocrit, haemoglobin and the reticulocyte count.
How it's measured
MCH is calculated by the analyser from the haemoglobin and the red cell count, reported in picograms (pg). It is read together with MCV and MCHC. Because it depends on the measured haemoglobin, sample quality (haemolysis, lipaemia) can distort it. Read the value against your own report's range.
What to do next
A low MCH supports an iron-deficiency picture and is pursued alongside a low MCV; a high MCH is interpreted with an eye to sample quality and the reticulocyte response. As a supporting index, MCH is read within the whole red-cell picture rather than acted on alone.
Reference ranges reflect conventional laboratory intervals. Always interpret against your own lab's printed range and your veterinary surgeon's judgement. A brighter optimal band is shown only where a published guideline defines one, and it is cited.
This page is educational and is not a diagnosis. Lab results are interpreted in the full clinical context by your veterinary surgeon; a single value rarely tells the whole story.
