Blood Bank Donations

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.