Key Points
- Animal blood banks have existed in Australia for about two decades.
- Murdoch Animal Hospital has about 70 dog blood donors and 40 cat blood donors on its books.
- If a cat needs a transfusion and cat blood is not available, dog blood can be used to save a cat’s life.
Henry the flat-coated retriever looks like your average dog but this canine has helped many other dogs through serious injury and illness.
The nine-year-old, who loves trips to the beach and spending time with his owner - who took him in as a rescue pup when he was just 12 weeks old - is also a blood donor.
Just as humans sometimes need blood transfusions, animals can also require a top-up of blood from time to time, and this is where animal blood banks, like the one Henry donates to, can play a part.
Dog-to-dog blood donations
Henry's blood products have helped in a variety of situations, from a sick dog who ate the pain killer ibuprofen, a dog who was unwell due to a cancerous mass and a number of dogs suffering from a condition that caused them to be anaemic.
His blood has been given to many different breeds of dog including a French bulldog cross, a Jack Russell terrier, a cavoodle, a bullmastiff and a rottweiler.
Henry has been a blood donor for the past six years and his donations have helped numerous other dogs. Source: Supplied
Animals getting blood transfusions
Claire Sharp is an associate professor of veterinary medicine and she heads up the blood bank at the Animal Hospital at Murdoch University in Perth where Henry is a donor.
“Some of the more common reasons animals might need blood are if they lose blood due to a trauma, for example, being hit by a car or being involved in an animal fight, or if they have a big surgery that results in blood loss during surgery,” she said.
Sharp said animals also sometimes lost blood due to particular cancers or autoimmune diseases.
Blood banks for dogs and cats
She said while in the past the university’s animal hospital had collected blood from clinic dogs or cats, about seven years ago, the university made a decision to change the way in which it sourced the blood products it needed.
“We switched over in 2016, to using exclusively community-owned dogs and cats,” she said.
She said animal blood banks started in the United States in about the 1960s or 1970s. In Australia, until the first blood banks were established about 20 years ago, blood transfusions were done on an “as-needed basis” usually making use of pets owned by members of the veterinary team treating an animal.
Claire Sharp heads up the blood bank at the Animal Hospital at Murdoch University in Perth. Source: Supplied
“Pets have a different role in people's lives in Australia than they did 30 years ago, a lot more pets, live inside the house with us, they're sort of members of the family rather than living outside,” she said.
“I think back in the day when pets were really sick, a family might come to the conclusion that it was okay to let them go sooner than these days where, if there is a possibility that we could treat them and have a successful outcome, a lot of families do choose to go down that path.”
Animal blood types
The blood bank at Murdoch has about 70 dog blood donors and 40 cat blood donors on its books.
There are different blood types within both dogs and cat species and like humans, there are certain blood types that can be safely shared with animals with another blood type and others that can't.
While cat blood is obviously preferred when giving a cat a blood transfusion, if cat blood is not available, dog blood can be used to save a cat’s life.
Animal blood donations
Sharp said a lot of the process for taking blood was similar to what happens when humans attend.
Once the pet owner has filled out a questionnaire to make sure that their pet has been healthy since their last donation and is not on any medications that would interfere with it, the vet checks their haemoglobin.
“Just like when you go to the Red Cross where they would normally prick your finger and check that you've got an adequate number of red blood cells, we do the same thing with our dog and cat donors."
A small amount of fur on the dog's neck is clipped and the skin is cleaned before blood is taken.
Their owners usually sit with their dog, to keep them calm and restrained, with the process taking about five minutes.
There's no cups of tea and biscuits or sausage rolls, but a big bowl of dog food at the end.
For those not as motivated by food, they will get a play and a cuddle.
The cat blood donation process is slightly different, with owners usually dropping them off for a few hours as they are given a small amount of anaesthetic, so they can lay still and remain calm throughout the process.
Animal blood stocks
Like human donors, some cats and dogs are better suited to giving blood.
At Murdoch, dogs must weigh at least 20kg and cats at least 4.5kg to give blood. Whereas humans give 470ml when they donate blood, dogs give 450ml and cats 54ml.
Sharp said while the owners of pets who regularly donate blood generally do it because they understand the importance of having blood available for sick and injured pets, sponsors also provide goodie bags with pet products as a thank you.
The animal donors also get annual blood tests to check they are healthy, at no cost to the owners.
Sharp said most states have at least one animal blood bank.
Many clinics within Western Australia will refer dog or cat patients to the university clinic because of its blood stocks.
“Blood is considered a biological product and without a licence as a commercial blood bank, individual veterinary hospitals are not able to sell or distribute blood products to other animal hospitals,” Sharp said.
While the blood bank generally stores only dog and cat blood, she said blood transfusions are done on other animals when required.
“Sometimes I work with our large animal veterinary specialists and we might collect blood from a cow for transfusion to another cow or from a sheep for transfusion to another sheep or from an alpaca transplant to another alpaca, but we don't store blood from those species because the need for transfusions is not so high,” she said.
Henry is a long-running donor
Henry's owner Alisha Ayton, who works at the clinic at Murdoch, said he was a perfect candidate for donating blood due to his laid-back nature.
"He knows the routine, he knows where the room is, he'll actually jump up on the table and lay down," Ayton said.
Henry has donated blood 18 times and will likely donate once or twice again before 'retiring' next year. Source: Supplied
Ayton said it was a good feeling to think Henry may have saved other dogs' lives and helped them through difficult times.
She recalled one donation that Henry provided, which was not enough to save the particular dog's life but was a special gift in another sense.
"The owners were out of the state, the blood transfusion gave them enough time to get home and actually say goodbye to their dog," Ayton said.
Henry has been the longest-running donor at the clinic and is soon due to retire from blood donation duties.
