Vets encourage animal blood donations to save lives
Just like humans, did you know signing your pet up to donate blood could save a life?
Emergency veterinarian Taleta Hompas is encouraging pet owners to consider signing their dog or cat up to become a regular blood donor, the ABC reports.
The Canberra Veterinary Emergency Services [CVES] started building their own blood bank or canines and felines earlier this year.
"If you have a patient that arrives after a serious trauma and they're bleeding internally, they need blood," CVES director and veterinarian Taleta Hompas told ABC.
"Ten, 20 minutes is too long sometimes so when they need the blood they need it now."
There are not many feline blood banks established in Australia yet.
"I think we're one of the first ones that are going to hold cat blood that are ready for transfusion and ready to supply to other clinics in the region when they need it," Dr Hompas said.
A number of cats and dogs have already signed up to become regular blood donors at the clinic.
"It's fairly quick — about five to 10 minutes," Dr Hompas said.
"They wake up and have the blood volume replaced with fluids, and then hopefully they don't look back."
Now all dogs and cats fit the criteria to be a blood donor though.
"Temperament is a very important one for us because we need them to relax and be willing to have the donation made," she said.
"We usually ask for dogs over 30 kilograms so we can take a full unit of blood, which is 500 mils, as a donation.
"With cats ... we take between 40 and 50 mils, so a big difference from the amount we take from dog.”