Veterinary clinic starts blood bank for pets
The North Houston Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Willowbrook Hospital is the first animal hospital in the Houston area to accept blood donations for pets.
Typically, smaller clinics that perform surgical procedures on pets might order blood from an outside source. But having a blood supply on hand for dogs and cats elimi- nates the middle man and provides those clinics with an available and convenient blood supply.
The animal hospital recently hosted a blood drive.
“I think a lot of people are unaware this (pet blood donation) exists. Everyone who has been here today has said they had no idea that animals could donate blood,” said Dr. Natalie Lang, who specializes in emergency medicine. “When vet- erinarians in the community need blood, they don’t have to order it, they can get it right now from us. This is the only blood bank in Houston. Blood is available here any time of day or night.”
Like human beings, dogs and cats have blood types.
For dogs, there are two types — DEA positive, and DEA negative — with DEA negative being the universal type that all dogs can use.
Cats blood is sort of like human blood types, and is usually type A, B or AB. Cats do not have a universal blood type.
There are many benefits to having your dog or cat donate blood, but the greatest benefit is knowing these donations can save the lives of other pets in the future, Lang said.
The donors’ plasma and packed red blood cells will assist animals suffering from
trauma, toxin ingestion, auto-immune diseases and heat stroke, aswell as those who are preparing for or recovering from surgery.
There is no charge to donate, and there are a number of benefits to pet blood donation, which includes free blood work examination, heartworm and thyroid testing, blood typing, infectious disease testing, and lots of treats.
“This is a nice program to have because a lot of the testing they are doing is not something that will be done regularly by the veterinarian,” Lang said.
The North Houston Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Willowbrook Hospital has been screening donors for infectious disease to ensure pets are good candidates for donation.
Several others were pre-screened in the last 60days in order for those pets to be able to donate blood in February.
One of those was Mick Jagger, a three-year old Irish wolfhound weighing in at 140 pounds.
Mick, whowas sporting a blue bandana when he was brought in to donate blood this week, sat quietly in an upstairs examination room, waiting for the mild sedative to take effect.
“We only gave him a little bit of a sedative because this is his first time donating and we wanted to see howhe does with it,” said veterinary technician Talar Everett. “This is not something they need to be completely sedated for, this is just to take the edge off.”
His owner, Susan Lipka, sat nearby reassuring Mick.
Lipka, who owns six Irish wolfhounds, said as a blood donor herself she understands the benefit of having her pets donate blood.
“It’s nice knowing that not only me, but my dogs can give back to the com- munity,” she said. “We believe in volunteering.”
About 10 minutes after the sedative was given, Mick was helped onto the examination table and lay quietly as Everett shaved the left side of Mick’s neck.
Lipka continued whispering to Mick as his neck was sterilized, and a needle connected with a tube to a bag in a nearby tray was in- serted into a vein.
Within a few minutes, the needle was removed, and Mick was enjoying the first of several treats while he recovered.
Lipka said she plans to bring her other dogs for blooddonation soon.