Posted on 09/01/2007 2:30:57 PM PDT by DancesWithCats
Aug 31, 2007 2:26 PM
PULLMAN, Wash. (Map, News) - Advances in veterinary medicine and affluent pet owners willing to pay for lifesaving treatments have created an ongoing shortage of animal blood for use in surgeries and transfusions.
But 14 regular canine contributors are helping to fill the demand at the Washington State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital here.
Jacob and his brother, Quinn, both 4-year-old greyhounds, were the latest donors in a WSU program that has spent two decades trying to solve a problem that few people know exists.
"All the major banks are back-ordered," said Jane Wardrop, 55, a WSU professor and clinic chief who helped launch the canine blood donation effort in the region and across the nation. People who read this also read:
At any given time, national supplies of dog blood lag weeks or months behind the need, said Pat Kaufman, 59, president of the Animal Blood Bank in Dixon, Calif., the oldest of eight banks across the country.
"It was just extreme around the beginning of this year," she said. "We were four months behind. And then we have cat blood, too, and we're always behind."
Kaufman's company collects blood from 500 to 1,000 dogs a week and about 150 cats, then sells the blood to veterinarians and others across the country and around the world.
When animal blood banks first began in the U.S. in the late 1980s, few veterinarians performed blood transfusions or complicated surgeries, so they didn't see the need, Kaufman and Wardrop said.
But the demand for animal blood has skyrocketed in recent years.
"We're no longer a rural society that looks at the dog as a farm animal or a piece of equipment," Kaufman said. "People have moved them into their own homes and given them the same ...
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
WSU veterinary school students collected about 300 units of blood and blood products for use in about 200 animals last year, Wardrop said. Each unit of blood can be divided for use in as many as four animals. She has given as little as 40 milliliters of blood to an ailing Chihuahua and as many as 17 whole units of blood to a miniature pinscher with clotting problems.
Wardrop regularly recruits blood donors from students, faculty, staff and community residents.
Canine candidates are happy, healthy dogs who weigh between 60 pounds and 90 pounds and who aren't easily stressed.
Jacob and Quinn's owner, WSU veterinary surgeon Bonnie G. Campbell, brings the dogs in every eight weeks or so.
"They lie down and get a belly rub. For Jacob, it's like going to a spa," Campbell said. "As a surgeon here, I see the benefit of having that product handy."
Drawing blood from an animal is a lot like a human donation. Technicians tap the jugular vein, partly because it's accessible and partly to speed up the process. After donating, dogs receive treats and petting as positive reinforcement for their effort.
The process is similar for cats but much more difficult, Wardrop says: "They don't like to sit still."
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... LOL don't like to sit still!!? LOL This person doesn't know kitties very well, do he? Doesn't like to be scared to death, doesn't like the sound of dogs barking and whining, doesn't like the sound of clippers clipping off fur, doesn't like the NEEDLES poking into their necks, sigh ... I understand they need the blood, but couldn't they just put them under for the procedure and let them wake up hours later AT HOME with a fresh bowl of sardines in front of their little noses? Better idea? Huh?
Kitty Ping! Doggie Ping!
awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww ... cute lil kitty!
My cattle dog would require more than a belly rub and a biscuit. Raw meat and an hour of frisbie tossing if he were able to negotiate.
LOL Yeah, I thought a belly rub and a biscuit pretty cheap seats myself for such a sacrifice!
Trisham! I didn’t know that. Practical. Hope the hospital cat is always a mellow fellow and not an unwilling participant.
The ones I’ve known have been pretty cool about the whole thing. They’re incredible, kind of big toms, with tons of personality. They thrive on all of the attention.
Oh well. Then that’s neat! My cats’d flip!
http://www.catcare.com/zack.htm
:)
LOL!
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..As in I am not a happy camper here. =^..^=
Cute story, but our momma cat would have no part of this.
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