Just like us, pets may suffer from a life-threatening illness such as trauma/injury, anaemia or toxicity that could result in them requiring a blood transfusion to save their life.
Unfortunately, we don’t have access to a canine blood bank in Port Macquarie, so we rely on blood donations from some of our patients. We are asking the owners of young healthy dogs if they would like to consider registering their pet as a potential blood donor. There is no cost to you whatsoever for your pet to be a blood donor.
For your pet to be considered as a potential blood donor, there are a few requirements that your dog must have to be eligible. These are in place to ensure the health of both the blood donor and the recipient patient.
- Minimum of 25kg in bodyweight
- Be up to date with their preventative medicine including vaccinations, heartworm prevention and intestinal worming
- Live reasonably close to our hospital
- Be aged between 1 and 7 years of age
- Have an excellent, calm temperament
- Be in good health and have no history of serious illness or be on any regular medications
- Must have a blood test performed prior and have the results be within the normal parameters
- Have never received a blood donation
If you agree to register your dog on our blood donor registry, you may be called upon on short notice at any time.
We would ask you to bring your dog down to the hospital, where you will have a consultation with one of our veterinarians. This is to ascertain information regarding your dog’s recent health and medical history. You will also be asked to sign a consent form allowing us to proceed, and your dog will be admitted to hospital.
A blood sample will be collected and tests performed in house, including haematology and biochemistry, to ensure it is safe for your pet to donate blood. We can then add these tests to your dogs file for future reference.
Our blood donations are carried out by one of our veterinarians and veterinary nurses, who will monitor your dog for the duration of the blood donation process. We do use a mild sedation in our donor patients to ensure the procedure runs as smoothly as possible. Once we have collected the required amount of blood, your dog will be placed on intravenous fluids during the recovery period, which replaces the amount of blood donated.
They will be monitored closely by one of our nurses in recovery. Once they have recovered sufficiently, they may be picked up from the hospital. Most patients are ready to go home a few hours after donating blood.
As with any procedure, there are risks associated with donating blood, which you need to consider before volunteering your dog as a blood donor. We will take every precaution possible to minimise these and we will do everything we can to ensure the health and well being of your dog. During the blood donation process, your dog will be looked after by our experienced team of veterinarians and nurses.
We value your wonderful contribution, and will provide your dog a certificate recognising your dog as a volunteer blood donor, and some treats to say thank you. For any inconvenience caused to you, we would like to offer you a gift voucher in the way of a pre-paid EFTPOS card, which is yours to spoil yourself anywhere that accepts EFTPOS.
If you would be happy for us to add your dog to our volunteer blood donor registry, please give us a call on 6583 5677.