Features
Canine Blood Donors Play Crucial Role
OVC hospital gives about 500 transfusions a year
BY DAVID DICENZO
Give blood and you get a cookie. It's a standard practice when it comes to people donating the red stuff. The same rule applies for dogs in the canine blood donor program run by the small-animal clinic at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH).
About 45 good-natured dogs, ranging from one to five years of age and weighing at least 25 kilograms, are regular participants in the program, donating blood for in-clinic use. Registered veterinary technician Ramona Fowler says the dogs are crucial partners in meeting the medical needs of the clinic's patients.
“Because we're a referral hospital, we see patients for specialized surgeries where they encounter bleeding and need a blood product,” says Fowler. “Or we see dogs that are anaemic or have something wrong with their platelets, and they need blood products. Without the blood, we certainly wouldn't be able to treat all the illnesses and diseases that pets are sent here with.”
The intensive-care unit at the VTH handles 10 to 20 critically ill patients each day, typically using between five and 10 blood products a week, says Fowler. The clinic, which is similar to a human blood bank in that it has a large centrifuge to spin blood and a -70 C freezer to store it, gives about 500 transfusions a year.
Most of the blood donor dogs are volunteered by their owners to come in once every two months for two years to give blood, she says. Virtually all of them provide A negative blood, a universal type compatible with most dogs. “One unit of blood can supply four patients.”
Participating dogs enjoy their fair share of perks, from vaccines and free heartworm medication to toenail trimming, take-home food and, of course, the complimentary cookies. The dogs also get a physical exam each time they visit.
Although most of the canine donors are volunteers, the clinic houses 12 to 15 resident dogs that live on site and give blood as needed on an emergency basis, says Fowler.
“A lot of times in the middle of the night, the hospital will need fresh whole blood, in which case the ICU technicians would come down and draw the blood ASAP.”
Resident dogs are unwanted when they arrive at the clinic, and it's easy to tell when they haven't been treated well, she says. They may have been tied up in a backyard somewhere and ignored, and they may have had little or no training. But when they enter the clinic, they have a large run, are walked regularly (a responsibility of first- and second-year vet students), get toys to play with and have all their medical needs taken care of.
“They go out two or three times a day with their buddies,” Fowler says of daily playtime in a nearby outdoor pen. “They roughhouse, they play, they get walked. Quite honestly, they get treated better than a lot of dogs out there.”
A collage of pictures in a clinic hallway gives a visual history of the many dogs that have come through the donor program.
When a resident dog eventually retires from the program, it is adopted out. The clinic will keep a dog as long as necessary to find a loving owner, says Fowler, who admits to feeling both happy and sad when an animal heads off to a new home.
“We fit the person with the dog to see if it's something that works for them. Our success rate is very high.”
For information about volunteering a dog for the blood donor program, call Fowler at Ext. 56476. To learn more about the clinic's adoption program, call Alison Downie at Ext. 56207.