Failed Blood Donors?

It was blood donation day today.

For dogs and humans after hearing appeals.

Dog: Cos there was an appeal to help locate compatible blood for a collie who needed blood transfusion having under went surgery. While in other countries, there are blood banks for dogs, there is none in Singapore.

Human: Cos the blood bank is at an all time low now.

But you know something? Even though we had the good intention to donate blood to help both dogs and humans, i became the standby donor and she, a rejected blood donor. 

Did you know that there are 15 types of blood types for dogs?

Dogs with type A negative blood make the best donors. A cross-match to test for a negative reaction is usually performed prior to a transfusion. Interestingly, up to 70 percent of greyhounds are A negative, compared with a much smaller percentage of the general dog population.Dogs have 6 major blood types and a universal donor is DEA 1.1, 1.2 and 7 - and DEA 4 + DEA 1.1 + 42% of population DEA 1.2 + 20% of population DEA 3 + 6% of population DEA 4 + 98% of population DEA 5 + 23 % of population DEA 7 + 45% of population.

Canine Donors should:
1. Be Healthy
2. Be Between 1 to 7 years of age
3. Weigh more than 50 pounds
4. Be neutered
5. Be easy to handle
6. Be current on vaccines
7. Be on monthly heartworm preventive
8. Be on monthly flea and tick preventive
9. Be a universal donor
10. Never have been bred

How is blood collected from a dog?
Donating blood takes only 15-25 minutes and may require sedation. Dogs donate either on their side or lying down. Blood is collected from the jugular vein, which is the large vein in the neck. It is recommended that dogs be fasted before giving blood.

How much blood can be taken from a dog?
Dogs generally donate 450 ml (~ 16 oz) of blood or 10% of their body weight. When whole blood is collected from donors it is frequently separated into two components. It is separated into packed Red Blood Cells (PRBCs) and plasma. PRBCs are used to treat anemic animals. Units can be stored for up to 21-45 days. The plasma is frozen immediately and this product is called fresh frozen plasma. It can be stored frozen for one year and is used to treat animals with clotting disorders.

At the vet, after getting my blood drawn out from my leg, it was cross matched with the collie. My blood was compatible. However, at this point in time, the collie doesn’t need the blood, so i am a STANDBY donor. So if the collie needs a transfusion, i’d be called up to donate blood. So i was sent home with a bandage on my leg. Of cos i got lots of hugs, treats and lunch finally after fasting for 6 hours. i was such a good boy. 

As for her, can’t be i donate blood and she doesn’t lead by example right? It was timely that there was a blood collection near my house. So she went and upon reaching there, a form was filled up.

After being asked a whole lot of questions by a doctor, a testing was done. A puncture was made on her finger and blood was collected. Guess what? She failed. Seems that her blood’s hemoglobin is too low for her to donate blood.. it other words.. low blood count. So she was sent home with a pack of iron supplements and told to return after two weeks.

Oh well… the standby and the rejected donor.

It was funny… someone (a silly human by the way) asked if i was doing this so that i could go into heaven. i growled and snapped back, “Don’t you know? All dogs go to Heaven!”