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In order to obtain blood for sick or injured dogs and cats, the Sulinger Land veterinary partners use their own donor database. The recipient animals are given the fresh blood via drip. © SvenjaxHanusch/imago images
Blood donations can often save lives. Not only in humans, but also in animals. A veterinarian explains how it works.
Diepholz district – Whether after accidents or illnesses: blood donations often ensure the survival of the recipients. This is not only the case for people. Pets – primarily dogs and cats – can also be saved through blood transfusions. The Sulinger Land veterinary partners with practices in Bassum, Mellinghausen and Schwaförden are one of the few providers in the region. To obtain the blood, the veterinarians working there rely on a hand-picked donor database, which they tap into when necessary.
The procedure is basically similar to human blood donation, as Dr. Thomas Lund, veterinarian and partner of Tierarztpartner, explains. A certain amount of blood is drawn from a fellow animal before it is administered to the recipient via a drip.
Veterinarian relies on freshly drawn donor blood
At the veterinary partners – a group of several practices – there is very little time between the two steps. They do not store blood reserves, but only arrange donations “when there is an emergency,” says Lund – for example when animals are brought to the practice after accidents with severe blood loss. The veterinarians also sometimes resort to blood transfusions in cases of autoimmune diseases.
The first point of contact is the veterinary partner branch in Schwaförden. “We have an intensive care unit there, where someone can look after the animals at night,” reports the partner. In the practice, blood donations take place about once a month.
If a dog or cat in need arrives, the partner searches the in-house donor database. This consists mostly of animals from the staff, Lund’s own four-legged friends and residents of the Lindern animal shelter in Sulingen. If an apparently suitable donor is found, the blood of the donor and the recipient is examined in a cross-test in the laboratory. “They look to see if it clots?” explains the vet. If it doesn’t, the blood is taken from the jugular vein. “They don’t necessarily find that funny,” he says.
Collecting blood from cats can be particularly difficult. It is not uncommon for the vet to put them under general anesthesia. The animal then receives the donation via a drip, just like a human.
Blood volume depends on weight
To ensure that the blood donors do not have to rely on a transfusion themselves later, Lund takes care not to take too much. This means that the amount taken is always in proportion to the body weight. According to the German Red Cross, dogs – like their owners when donating whole blood – are only allowed to give a maximum of 500 milliliters at a time. And of course there are upper limits for cats, which are adjusted to their own weight. “It must not harm the donor,” is the veterinarian’s mantra.
That’s why he and his team make sure to take blood from the animals in the practice’s donor database every three months at the most. Ultimately, the animals must be able to regenerate in order to help many other animals of their species in the future.
Blood groups in dogs and cats
There are more than a dozen blood groups among dogs. However, these are not particularly relevant when a four-legged friend receives a blood donation for the first time. Unlike humans and cats, dogs do not carry antibodies against foreign blood from birth. In their blood group system Dog Erythrocyte Antigen (DEA), a distinction is made between DEA 1.1 positive and DEA 1.1 negative. The latter is the more common one.
Cat blood can be classified into three groups: A, B and AB. A is the most common. The search for suitable donors is more limited than with dogs. Cats with blood groups A and B can only receive donations from other cats with the same blood group. Otherwise, a life-threatening reaction can occur in the body of the recipient cat.
