Hello all,

Just thought i would update you all on what happened at Kesters first session to donate blood.

It was all fine, he had a small amount taken to check for blood count etc and had his temperature taken, heart listened to etc.

This was done at the Royal Vet college at Potters Bar, Herts and they are ALWAYS looking for dogs to be donors.  The dog has to be over 25kg in weight, under the age of 8 yrs , fully innoculated and fairly calm (Although to look at Kester bouncing around in the waiting room, you'd think he was too loony for the job!!).

I chose not to stay in the room while he was having his first lot of blood taken, then he's not worried about looking after me, just getting on with the job. There is a special machine to help take the blood, so it doesn't co-agulate, and a full unit takes about 4-5 minutes to take, so a small price to pay for helping to save a dogs life!

Kester got lots of treats and after his first full unit is taken next week, he'll get a small bowl of nice food to say thank-you.

If you have any questions about it, please pm me.

At the moment, the RVC uses about 4-6 units per week, so thats 4-6 donors that are used, and dogs can give blood every 10 weeks (ish) if needed.

Lecture over chaps - thanks for reading.

Ali

What a brilliant thing to do! My boss's dog is blood donor, but mine are either too light or too old to do it. Good for Kester!

A friends Cane Corso's are blood donors
One of her females had her picture in the local papers a few weeks ago and she was in the news of the world as well.....
We are trying to get more of our Corso Club members to  do this.....

Good work every one that is already doing it..... 

Jeckie

Can you send me more information on this, I would like to know more my brrod are hearty and heathy, do you go through you own vet, as they are always to busy to do anything.

Lynn
With the TM's

Ali

What a brilliant thing for you (and Kester) to do.  I'd really, really encourage anyone with appropriate dogs to do this; it's just like donating human blood.  I'd do it myself but Cashie's only 14kg.:_(  I hope it'll never happen but one of our dogs might need donated blood some day.

I've taken blood from literally thousands of patients and I'm being totally honest when I say the vast majority don't seem to notice a thing.  Usually the part they like least is the noise of the clippers when we shave their neck in order to see the vein!  Once that's over they don't seem to even notice the needle!  I'd be lying if I said there isn't the odd one which struggles but generally speaking that's because either they're in such a bad way their veins are really collapsed or they simply just don't like being handled.

Lynn, I'll try to find some information for you and PM it.  It's a shame your vet always seems so busy but it's s*d's law that people ring about this sort of thing just as we've got an RTA on the table or are about to do a PTS, so don't take it personally! :-)

Friend has two rotties who have donated blood several times :)

Daisy

Thats such a good thing to do :)  Well done!

I give blood myself, Maybe I should introduce the dogs to it although if the dogs HAVE to be shaved (well you do need to find the vein) then I wouldn't want the show dogs being used but do have non show/early retired dogs so could you please PM me aswell.  Thanks :)

I think if you told the judge why the dog had been shaved, perhaps taking a note from the vet to show the steward, you would not be penalised at all.

My dogs don't give blood donations (I don't think that they weigh enough) but when one of mine has blood tests then we just tell the vet not to shave him and the vet has got blood from leg and neck without shaving
GG

We don't always clip for a blood test - it depends on a few things.  Obviously it's easier to spot a vein on a dog with a short, light coat.  It's also much easier with bigger dogs as of course their veins are larger.  I always clip pets which seem like they're going to be "wigglers"; I realise that some owners don't like to see a clipped patch but the important thing is to hit the vein as soon as possible and cause minimum discomfort.

Some owners are horrified that we use the jugular vein but in cats and small dogs, if they're at all dehydrated it's often impossible to obtain enough blood using the cephalic vein before the sample clots.  A lot of animals resent being restrained for cephalic puncture far more than for jugular, as well