Canine blood transfusions have many uses and can be critical, life-saving procedures. Blood loss through injury (such as traffic accidents) or other causes of traumatic blood loss (such as rat/warfarin poisoning) can lead to death and may also compromise life-saving surgical interventions. Fresh whole blood is easily stored for anticipated usage and can, in many circumstances, make all the difference in a pet's survival. For these reasons, blood transfusions have become increasingly more common in veterinary medicine and are an important aspect of advanced treatment of the critically ill dog.

Blue Ridge Pet Clinic has a network of healthy canines from the White Mountain area that donate blood for our Canine Blood Transfusion Pool. These donations allow us to have blood products readily available in our hospital should a critical situation arise that requires your pet to be transfused.

Dogs like humans, have blood groups and can be blood typed. Preferably, donor and recipients should be type-matched. Cross-matches can also be performed to confirm compatibility, and are recommended if the recipient has had a previous transfusion.

 
Donating

Donor animals should be checked by a veterinarian to ensure that they are fit and healthy before making a blood donation.

An ideal blood donor is a friendly, healthy animal that is not pregnant or has not produced a litter if unspayed. Donors should be vaccinated (although not within 10-14 days before donation) and free of infections and parasites, especially blood-borne disease. Blood usually can be collected from a donor without sedation if they are cooperative, which is often the case with easy-going canines. Blood is collected into standard human blood bags or syringes that contain anti-clotting additives. A typical blood donation from a dog is 450ml ('one canine unit') and it can be safely obtained from a dog approximately 50 pounds or larger; smaller amounts may be obtained from smaller dogs.

Repeated blood donations over a relatively short period of time can lead to anemia, and should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. For this reason, after a donation is made and recorded on our database, the donor will be blocked from being called via the registry for three months.

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