LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – When a canine is in crisis, Las Vegas Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care is there, performing life-saving transfusions with blood from donor dogs.
“Each donor that we have has their picture, their blood type, the last time they donated, and when their blood work will be due,” said Heather Davis, Las Vegas Animal Blood Bank coordinator.
In March, Metro Police K9 Enzo was airlifted to V.E.C.C for emergency surgery after a suspect stabbed him multiple times.
“He had a lot of wounds. We didn’t know how extensive they were. There were a couple that were bleeding pretty profusely,” said Davis. “For the first, I think two days, he was doing great, no problems, and then there was one morning we were just re-checking his vitals, and we noticed that his red blood cell count was low. It was a huge drop.”
After a blood transfusion and some special attention, Enzo got to go home with his handler. It’s one of many success stories for the only animal blood bank in the Las Vegas Valley, supplying blood and plasma to every vet hospital in the region.
“It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of responsibility, and the demand can be really difficult to keep up with,” said Davis. “As you can see, we only have currently one full unit of negative blood and two full units of positive blood.”
Without their own supply, the V.E.C.C and other hospitals would rely on out-of-state blood banks. At times, they go through six or more units in a day.
So as high demand sometimes bleeds them dry, the V.E.C.C is searching for more doggie donors, with both positive and negative blood types. The donor dogs need to be one to seven years old, 50 pounds minimum but not overweight, with no chronic medical conditions or raw diets, and they need to be happy to be there.
“Sometimes the dogs just aren’t into it, and we don’t want them to come in here and be stressed about it,” said Davis. “We want them to be excited and happy and know that they’re going to come in and get their pets and get their treats and provide a great service to all the other doggies.”
The process starts with a physical exam with full bloodwork and infectious disease screening. Then, they can donate every six to eight weeks or as an emergency donor, on call for urgent cases.
“Our best ones are actually pitties. The pit bulls come in, they’re so happy, they wag their tails, they’re just happy to be involved. They love it, they love coming in. But the big ones, Great Danes, Mastiffs, yes because we can call on you more frequently. Those are fantastic to have.”
During the donation, the blood is collected from the dog’s jugular veins in their neck. It takes 5 to 10 minutes and rarely requires any sedation. Then, the blood is separated into plasma and red blood cells and stored in a cooler, ready to use for blood transfusions often needed when a dog is shot, stabbed, or hit by a car, also to treat autoimmune diseases, or for other surgeries.
Davis says each donation could save two canine lives, like Enzo’s.
“For us here knowing that our dogs are part of that program and can contribute to such an amazing K9, also for the community to look at this and be like, oh my gosh, my dog’s a member of that program. Maybe it was my dog’s blood that Enzo got. Those are just great feelings.”
The V.E.C.C. also has a cat blood bank, with A or B blood types, and sometimes the very rare AB blood type. However, since the donation process is riskier than for dogs, they don’t accept any cats from the public.
“Cats require a lot more sedation because it’s pretty easy to get a dog to be like, ‘Sure, I’ll lay here.’ Cats are like, ‘Absolutely not,’” said Davis. “There’s a lot more risk involved with cat donors, so we prefer to only use employee cats for donors because as veterinary professionals, we understand those risks a little bit more.”
If you’d like to enroll your dog in the blood donor program, starting with a screening session, click here.
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