Donating (horse) blood - what a POSITIVE experience!

[Sleipnir]

My local veterinary hospital spread the news on Facebook that they're in an urgent need for horse blood donations and offered to transport fitting volunteers to and from the hospital at their own costs. They needed healthy, strong geldings, 5-10 years of age and, although my big guy just turned 12, he's very healthy, so I contacted the vets and they agreed to take him.

So along came yesterday and him, together with his brother, traveled to the vets and I'm so glad that this has been his first and only visit to a veterinary hospital! The staff let them settle in for a bit, then weighed them both, clipped a bit off their necks, took blood samples and put them in the examination stocks. Over the next 6 hours, their blood was slowly collected and, at the end of the day, both of them had donated the optimum amount. After a rest and some observing in the stalls, they were ready to go home.

I know now that my boy weights "just" 750kgs and the staff were very pleased with his manners and calmness, considering he was in an entirely unfamiliar environment and had to endure the procedure for such a long time. And, what is even better - to know that his & his brothers' blood will help other horses in need. There was someone in the hospital at the time who needed it most urgently, but the staff said they would be happy to see us again as they need more blood almost constantly. Fortunately, many others from our area responded as well!

So proud of my boy and of his lovely behavior, that helped to make the vets' job so much easier. And, if you have a similar opportunity - I urge you, don't be afraid to give your local horse vets a call and see if they need blood donations! That could save a wonderful horse whom you maybe don't even know, but he surely means the life to his humans. As a plus, it's a wonderful opportunity to practice preferable behaviors at the vets!

Brothers ready for their adventure.

My gelding in the examination stocks for the first time and behaving impeccably:

 

[CMcC]

What a great thing to do. He looks very chilled at the whole experience. Well done all of you.

 

[Equi]

What a lovely post and a kind selfless thing for you to do. Weight is a bit of a shock though isn't it? Hes got good bone and is in nice condition but even at that i would have guessed about 550-600. Wish more vets had scales, id be at mine all the time!

 

[Sleipnir]

Thank you! The weight really was a bit of a shock! He's a bit lacking in muscle right now as I did not manage to fit as much riding as I wanted, this winter being so wet as it was, but by no means overweight! At his 16.3HH I knew he's big, but I didn't imagine he'd really weight so much! This will definitely make me recalculate his wormer dosage, for example... I "weighed' him with a tape previously and he tapes just a tad over 600!

 

[TheresaW]

What a fantastic thing to do.

Can I ask, and I’m not being funny, why did they only want geldings?

 

[Chinchilla]

Out of interest why do they want only geldings? This sounds brilliant and a big well done.....wish mine weren't too old

 

[Sleipnir]

Apparently, geldings suit better because they have very little hormonal activity going on, whereas the blood of stallions and mares is very much affected by their hormones and especially so if the mare is in heat! I didn't want to bother the vets and ask them to explain the details, but it seems that blood that's affected by unbridled (sorry, that's a horrible pun ) hormones may not be so versatile to fit any patient in need - especially, if the patient is a foal.

 

[TheresaW]

Thank you. I have the vet due for my 2 oldies soon. I might ask her about this, I have a 10yo gelding.

 

[Sleipnir]

If your vet could use blood donations too, that would be an excellent thing to do! I don't know how it differs from country to country, but I guess that the medical standards for donations shouldn't be too different.

 

[Chinchilla]

Apparently, geldings suit better because they have very little hormonal activity going on, whereas the blood of stallions and mares is very much affected by their hormones and especially so if the mare is in heat! I didn't want to bother the vets and ask them to explain the details, but it seems that blood that's affected by unbridled (sorry, that's a horrible pun ) hormones may not be so versatile to fit any patient in need - especially, if the patient is a foal.

*facepalms* That pun.....:rolleyes3:
Thanks for explaining though.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I didn't realise this was a thing! I know of blood banks where they go to stay but have never heard of taking blood off owned horses.
Your horse has a truly beautiful face.

 

[Sleipnir]

Aw, thank you, poiuytrewq. I have had people refer to him as plain of pig-eyed, but I never believed them!
I also did not know horse blood donations were a thing until I saw this heads-up on Facebook. Giving them a call was, I think, one of the best decisions I made lately! It cost me nothing, it was just a minor inconvenience for my horse, but a blessing to somebody else.

 

[druid]

They might be using geldings as mares can develop antibodies to blood types other than their own if they've had a foal which can cause cross reactions

 

[BeckyFlowers]

Your horse has a truly beautiful face.

And arse!

 

[Sussexbythesea]

What a great thing to do my boys too old and a big fidget but I’d definitely consider doing this in the right circumstances.

Do you know how much they collect? Are they able to eat during the collection?

And by the way his beauty shines through!

 

[PapaverFollis]

What a fab think to do. He's a lovely big lad isn't he? And such a good patient horse.

750kg though! I'm going to have to get my mare on a scales now, she takes at 640kg but is only 16hh. Scary how inaccurate your tape was for him really! Worried mine might be similar. Now which feed company can I persuade to come to the yard and pretend that I'm going to feed their feed....

 

[Sleipnir]

Thanks, all, he's my pride and joy ever since I got him as a gangly 5yo.

If I had opted to leave them at the vets till next morning, they would have taken approximately 15 liters from each horse, considering their size and weight. As we have to move yards this weekend and the donor has to be given a day or two off after the procedure, I decided to stay just for one day this time and so they took just around 8 liters from each. They're not allowed to eat while the blood is being collected, as the catheter is put in the neck and it shouldn't be moved around too much. A full, overnight procedure would have gone like this - blood would be collected for about 6 hours, then the horse would be given a couple of hours to rest and have some hay, and after that the first step would be repeated. In the end, the horse would stay until next morning to rest and for observation.

 

[hopscotch bandit]

Well done, thanks for coming on here and giving blood donation a positive review. Not the same I know as this is a permanent move for a horse but I am all for the equine blood banks and know a lot of horses that have gone there when they can't serve a useful life otherwise due to injury or whatever the reason. Its a wonderful place for them to live out their lives and they soon get used to donating blood.

 

[deb_l222]

Blimey, 6 hours - how much did they take???? Only kidding - just curious how long the actual donation took and how long you were hanging around for. Fantastic thing to do but the length of time would put me off considering a human can donate in approx 10 minutes.

 

[conniegirl]

What a fab think to do. He's a lovely big lad isn't he? And such a good patient horse.

750kg though! I'm going to have to get my mare on a scales now, she takes at 640kg but is only 16hh. Scary how inaccurate your tape was for him really! Worried mine might be similar. Now which feed company can I persuade to come to the yard and pretend that I'm going to feed their feed....

My 15.2hh weighed in at 620kg on the scales and he was quite lean at that point

 

[Sleipnir]

Blimey, 6 hours - how much did they take???? Only kidding - just curious how long the actual donation took and how long you were hanging around for. Fantastic thing to do but the length of time would put me off considering a human can donate in approx 10 minutes.

I think it was so long, because a slow drip of blood is easier on the horse than just draining all the amount at once - the horse might react adversely? The actual process of donation was, indeed, these 6 hours and we hanged around just for another hour altogether - to do the initial checks and then to observe them a bit before leaving. Maybe the way they do the procedure differs from one hospital to another - but this was our first experience with donation.