Blood donors: animals need them too
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- April
- 23
With celebrities and the media making a constant push for blood donation, it’s important to remember that cats and dogs often need donor blood also.
I found this article on MSN.com about animal blood donors and read it with interest.
My Italian greyhound, Molly, has von Willebrand’s disease, a clotting disorder. Animal (humans too) typically have a von Willebrand’s factor of 100 percent or just below. Molly has 8 percent. So any surgery or severe injury could cause her to bleed out quickly.
She’s had three blood transfusions in her five years. The first, at Tufts University outside Boston, was when she was about eight months old. I was concerned about her being spayed, thinking the surgery itself could kill her, but Molly’s veterinarians said she could have problems clotting during her normal heat cycle.
She had her second transfusion at three years old during an invasive test and the third shortly after when she underwent surgery and a biopsy on her liver (Molly also has a congenital liver disorder.) Both those transfusions were done at the County Animal Specialty Group in Yonkers.
Molly’s transfusions consisted of von Willebrand’s rich plasma and I am deeply grateful to the owners who brought in their dogs to give blood. Without those dogs I would have lost my own.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 am by Sarah Netter.
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Sarah Netter has covered Rockland County government and politics for The Journal News since August 2005. A Connecticut native, she previously covered several municipalities and state elections for her hometown paper. Sarah's passions include her two Italian greyhounds and cheesy disaster movies.
Thanks for sharing Molly’s story and reminding us about the need for animal blood donors.
you would think vets would remind us or tell us that we should think about having the pet be a donor.