You can donate to help VRC offer the best care possible with either a financial contribution, or by arranging for your pet to be blood donor. All gifts, no matter the size, are greatly appreciated. Please watch for additional messages that will share exciting and heartwarming stories of the animals that are helped through your generosity.
You can donate to help VRC offer the best care possible with either a financial contribution, or by arranging for your pet to be blood donor. All gifts, no matter the size, are greatly appreciated. Please watch for additional messages that will share exciting and heartwarming stories of the animals that are helped through your generosity.
We invite you to support our Central Oregon pets by making a tax deductible monetary donation via the Veterinary Care Charitable Fund. Your donation will provide medical services to the lost, neglected and abused animals that find their way into our hospital. It will also help us care for animals in our community when their owners face extraordinary hardships.
Your dog or cat can be a hero and save the life of another pet by donating blood. Pets may need transfusions for a variety of reasons including trauma (hit-by-car), cancers, and anemia. Blood products are usually needed immediately. They are difficult to get and expensive to obtain and store, which is why we created our own blood bank.
We first go through a screening process to make sure your pet is a suitable donor. That includes a general health exam by Dr. Vaughan, our internal medicine specialist, and then a series of blood tests. These are to assess general health as well as screen for any infectious disease that could be transmitted. A pet can give blood every 1-2 months but our goal for donors is 4 donations a year. These may be a combination of scheduled donations to provide samples to be banked or possibly on-call for emergency donations in the event of a blood shortage. Most dogs do well if they can lie still or may need light sedation. Most cats will need to be sedated
We provide initial and follow up physical exams, initial blood screening and annual follow up lab work as well as heartworm/flea and tick prevention for free to our donors. If a donor is ever unlucky enough to need a transfusion themselves, we provide free blood products to them. We also provide a thank you local businesses gift card for each donation. But most importantly, you and your pet get to help save a life.
There are a number of criteria that pets need to meet to be a donor. For dogs, they ideally are of the blood type DEA 1.1 negative as this makes them more likely to be a compatible donor. They also need to be between 1-7 years old, over 50 pounds, healthy, tested negative for a list of potential infectious diseases, on preventative medications for heartworm, fleas and ticks and ideally able to lie still for 10 minutes. Cats have similar requirements and need to be indoors.
You can call our main line (541-210-9200) to schedule an appointment with Dr. Vaughan to find out if your pet meets the requirements for blood donation.