As veterinary technician Dyne Hansing, right, holds a canine donor, vet technician Dorian Lara draws blood. (Karin Higgins/UC Davis photo)
Wanted: 400 dogs for new blood-donor program
Dogs and their owners in the Sacramento region can now give the gift of life to other dogs, thanks to a new canine blood-donor program launched by the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.
Approximately 1,200 pet dogs and canine law-enforcement officers will be screened during the coming year to develop a group of 200 to 400 regular donors. Although dogs are capable of donating blood monthly, the regular donors will probably come in two to three times per year.
The donor program and its new UC Davis Animal Blood Bank are housed in the campus's William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. It is the largest such program west of the Mississippi.
"Each year, the teaching hospital provides 200 to 300 transfusions for dogs to treat conditions ranging from surgical complications to kidney failure," said Dr. Sean Owens, the blood bank's medical director and head of the veterinary hospital's Transfusion Medicine Section.
"This new donor program will allow us to develop a large, reliable source of blood products for our patients, without maintaining a colony of donor dogs here at the hospital."
‘This new donor program will allow us to develop a large, reliable source of blood products for our patients, without maintaining a colony of donor dogs here at the hospital.’
Dr. Sean Owens, Transfusion Medicine Section head
13 blood types
Dogs have 13 different blood types; the preferred donor type is dog erythrocyte antigen 1.1 negative.
Until now, the hospital has obtained blood for its canine patients from a group of about 30 blood-donor dogs that live for a few years at the hospital and then are adopted out. Now, as the blood-donor program develops, those dogs are being matched with good homes.
(Members of the public who might be interested in adopting a retired canine blood donor can obtain more information about the dogs through .
Eventually a mobile blood bank
Eventually, the program plans to establish a mobile blood bank that could be taken to dog shows and other canine events to make donating more convenient for dogs and their owners.
ON THE HOME PAGE: Dogs like Trinity, owned by veterinary technician Dyne Hansing, can save lives through UC Davis’ new canine blood donor program. (Karin Higgins/UC Davis photo)
In addition to providing blood products for dog transfusions, the teaching hospital annually carries out 400 to 500 transfusions for cats, pigs, horses, cows, sheep and goats.
The UC Davis veterinary hospital currently is limiting its community blood collection to dogs because the tests necessary for screening the health of cats are too expensive. The hospital will continue to keep its on-campus colony of blood donor cats.
The new animal blood bank will store regular blood products for all of these species. It also will store umbilical cord blood for future use and will process adult stem cells from horse patients, which can be used to treat ligament, tendon or joint injuries and promote healing of some fractures.