Blood Donor

[Mountain Creek]

Hey everyone!

On Tuesday when I brought my old girl Midnite to the vet for her ear infection I noticed they had signs posted saying they were looking for doggie blood donors. Now Midnite is way too old (she's 13) but my youngin' Hannah seems to fit the requirements. She's between the ages of 1-8 years old (she's 1.5), and she weighs more than 50 pounds (she's 70 :eek:). Than to really encourage people to think about it they are offering to do all the bloodwork, heartworm testing, etc for free. So on Tuesday Hannah will go in to get the intial blood tests done to see if she is healthy enough to donate. If she is she will be called in once every three months to donate.

I think its really awesome I've always wanted to donate blood but I have these episodes where I pass out and doctors don't really know why. So it makes me a little leery to do it. So my dog will be able to help out other doggies and we get a bunch of free stuff every year for doing it. To me that's a good deal!

So wish us luck! :)

[WashingtonBay]

Interesting... I've never seen such signs up at my clinic.

I know when a friend's dog needed an emergency surgery, they were lucky to be able to bring in the dog's mother to donate blood and that worked.

[Mountain Creek]

This is the only vet clinic around here that I know does it. I saw it a couple of years ago when we first moved to PA and started going there. But Midnite was never over 50 pounds so she didn't qualify even then.

Glad your friend's dog was able to be saved. :)

[Tatesgram]

Wow, never thought of that. But it makes sense. Wonder if they have to match the blood like they do in humans or if theres a dog blood type like O.

[onemoretime]

Dogs do have blood types, just like humans. The lab at one of our vet's offices has Blood Type "O", and his blood can be used in place of any blood...universal. So it's good that he's the office pooch!!

I know cats have a blood type, there are 3...Horses have one too, from a past issue that was related to his negative Rh factor...

[Gliderider]

That is neat that they offer that. My Lab went in to be spayed and they nicked an artery and she needed a donor. Talk about scared. I was worried even when they let her come home she didn't have her spark in her eye and just wanted to lay. I was so worried we was going to lose her but thank God she came out of it after about 4 wks she was back to her self.

[Mountain Creek]

Hey everyone!

What a day we had!?!

I got to the vet's office an hour and a half earlier than I had to because I had to bring the BF to work and there was no sense of going back home. Thankfully I did because it took her that long to calm down (she is extremely hyper). Get her into the office and check in. She sat nicely only whined a few times. Finally the vet tech comes out and tells me she'll just take her and I could wait out in the waiting room. Hannah is not too fond of strangers and she looks pretty mean so they decided to muzzle her. Not a good idea! She fought to get it off so they wound up taking it off. Couple of minutes later they come back out and ask me if I want to hold her. I go in she sits between my legs and they tell me to hold her head up because they are going to take the blood from the vein in her neck :eek: Okay I've got a hold of her while they fiddle with the needle, finally get the needle in her neck, fiddle some more, put the tube in, no blood. Hannah wound up bending the first needle. They get a new needle, try again, there's blood, she moves, no blood. They tried one more time and then decided that maybe it would be better if I waited until she's older. For some reason I thought they were going to get the blood from her leg where you can clearly see her veins. If she ever does become a blood donor she would have to sit with her head up, completely still for 30 minutes. They told me to practice with her at home sitting like that and bring her back in 6 months. I told them maybe in a year. I wonder if that's why they only have 4 dogs that are blood donors. It just looks so uncomfortable and the floors are slick so poor girl couldn't even keep her front feet from sliding away from her.

They gave her the heartworm test for free anyway since I drove so far and she got cookies. Once the vet tech fed her they were best friends she just needs time to warm up to people. We practiced sitting and she held still for a minute tonight. :rolleyes:

I was proud of her anyway. So we went to lake for some swimming and then we went to the fenced in baseball field for some running. If someone wanted to take blood from her now they could because she is pooped! :)

[AUEquine]

huh... that's strange to me! All the clinics I've worked for had in-house blood donors (horses/dogs). Dog's do have blood types, but if I remember correctly they can recieve any blood the first time, but a second transfusion must be the same as the first. Horses are a little different, I'd have to do some more reading back to remember them. I just know we have 3 certified blood donor horses, and it doesn't matter which one we get.
But I still find it strange that they use outside dogs as donors. I guess they must freeze their blood (easier to do with dogs than horses).
Well best of luck, I hope she can save some lives!