doggie blood donars?

T

tastetherainbow

Active Member
Joined
13 October 2007
Messages
35
Visit site
hi anybody on here yake their dogs to donate blood. i know of somebody who took their dog and actually got paid around 30 quid from the vets to take the blood. this is wrong i think as you may get people doing it for the wrong reasons. apart from this i dont know that much about it so was just wondering if anybody does this and could tell me more. would be interested in taking my dog to donate..
 
Very common in UK. Until recently vets couldn't store blood products so needed to find a donor asap whenever they had a patient needing blood. For this reason it often ended up as the vet or nurse's dog that donated (although some vets kept potential donor lists/recruited clients dogs). I have never heard of people being paid before though. It has always been altruistic from my experience.
There is now a charity - Pet Blood Bank UK - based in Loughborough - that collects blood in advance and stores it until needed by vets. They are always looking for donors but they don't pay. They do do a full health screen including blood profile on donors first though so the owner benefits from this.
 
OH's dog has been twice - it's generally the vets' and nurses' dogs at his work because they are around when they are needed. Dogs need to be over about 23kg, over 18 months and in good health. It helps if they are calm and sensible and not snappy or wriggly about catheterisation as they can't be sedated... Labs seem to be quite good as they are big enough and not usually too wussy. Also need to be up to date with vaccinations etc.

You can use blood from any dog for a first transfusion (in a dog's life) but subsequent transfusions need to be cross matched in the lab before transfusion.

Mostly seems to be RTA/acute cases that need blood, so would appear to be difficult. I know that one practice used to allow dogs which were on the donor list to be vaccinated for free.
 
I know about several large vet clinics around Sweden that have had both blood donating cats and dogs for years. As I recall it, the dogs and cats usually gets a bag of free food at every time they donate blood (they can only leave blood so and so many times per year), they get a free health check per year + that before every time their blood is checked to make sure they don't have a cold or similar for free.

Dogs have to be obedient enough to be able to lay still while the blood is taken directly out of a vein but as I recall, cats have to donate under GA or similar. Again as I recall, dogs needs to weight more than 27kg's (59.52 lbs according to an internet conversion calculator), cats should preferably be of large breed.

Several dogs and cats lives have been saved in Sweden thank to this, sometimes by blood donors being called in acutely.


grin.gif
 
Greyhounds and lurchers give the best blood......and vets here will generally ask for them specifically, if a shortage any large fully vaxed dog in good health, my deerhound has given blood on a good few occasions and so has my whippey x grey when she was younger......my mam used to always pop home for a greyhound when her practice needed it....I have never heard of owners being paid.....the owner of the recieving dog will be charged though for the recieving of the blood.
 
I've signed my dogs up with Pet Blood Bank, only Hector's donated so far but Throp will join him on the next donation date. It seemed like a good cause and who knows may in future benefit my own dogs. It doesn't take very long to donate and is only 3-4 times a year so is easy for me to fit in.

You don't get paid, but you can get free microchipping and its useful to have a healthy blood profile to compare to if your dog gets ill in future. The dog gets a goodybag (toys & treats) and a nice bandanna to show everyone they're a hero!

The PBB staff are great and are keen to make sure your dog is comfortable with the process or they won't take a donation. The only bit Hector wasn't sure about was being lifted onto the table and then he didn't want to get up again after his donation as he was so relaxed being stroked by the staff
laugh.gif


Pet Blood Bank

Dog Blood Donors - seems to be a matching service for vets & volunteers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top