Last December, Rambo, my 12-year-old brindle pitbull, seemed to be heading for his annual Christmas turkey dinner. Then, about a week before the holiday, he appeared listless.
An emergency visit to his veterinarian, Dr Mark Adam, proved baffling. No diseases turned up in his tests. He didn’t have tick fever or an autoimmune deficiency disease, but his blood count was dangerously low.
On Christmas Eve, Rambo received an emergency blood transfusion from a rescued pitbull that lives at the Jones Veterinary Clinic in La Seiva, Maraval.
Dogs in need of blood transfusions can also have this procedure at Mt Hope’s School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) blood bank, established in March 2020 by Dr Ansarah Hosein.
“I saw the need for establishing a blood bank or blood donor programme because we often had animals that required transfusions – at least one every week,” said Hosein. “Having the blood readily available can be life-saving, and it can shorten the time to recovery.”
Hosein and Dr Sabrina Thomas run the Mt Hope-based blood bank. Both did MSc degrees at the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Canada, where there was an established blood bank.
“While I was there, I consulted with the specialists to find out what was needed to set up the blood bank,” said Hosein. “We started with basic equipment: a refrigerator, a scale and the ability to screen donors with bloodwork. We intend to expand into blood products such as packed red cells and possibly feline blood in the future.”
There are many reasons for animals to have blood transfusions, and they are commonly done too on cats, horses, goats, sheep and cattle.
A blood transfusion becomes necessary when a dog’s packed red-cell volume drops to 20 per cent or lower. This can occur in kidney disease, cancer or blood parasites spread by ticks, which cause a disease called tick fever.
[caption id="attachment_944447" align="alignnone" width="978"] Dr Ansarah Hosein with a pouch of blood used a transfusion for a dog at the Mt Hope School of Veterinary Medicine. - SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]
Vets always do bloodwork before surgery so they will know if a dog’s blood count is at an acceptable rate before procedures. Some need blood transfusions to be stabilised before surgery. Others might have had severe blood loss through an accident.
Dogs that have had a splenectomy (removal of the spleen) or a form of cancer that must be operated on might also need a transfusion.
When patients are severely anaemic, like Rambo, their organs don’t receive enough oxygen. If an intervention does not occur quickly, organ failure can ensue, and the dog will die.
The process of screening a donor and collecting blood for a transfusion can take eight-48 hours. Blood is collected through a jugular vein. The actual collection from the donor takes about 30 minutes.
“Our blood bank currently only stocks canine blood,” said Hosein. “The large animal and equine sections of the SVM do blood transfusions on goats, most often, but also on sheep, cattle and horses.
“We have no
