Your Dog or Cat Can Help Save Other Pet’s Lives by Donating Blood

If you have a universal blood type, you might be used to the Red Cross calling you (raises hand). And if you are one of those O-Group folks, you were probably at the top of the list of your sorority’s vampire-level-intense annual Homecoming blood drive (OK, maybe that one is going to be relatable to fewer people). But you get it. Once you’ve been identified as someone with, for lack of a better description, really great blood, you get used to needles and free juice and cookies. While the free snacks are always a perk, the best part of blood donation is that you helped someone else.

Did you know your pet can get in on that good karmic feeling by becoming a donor, too? For National Volunteer Blood Donor Month, I spoke with representatives at BluePearl National Blood Bank to learn more about their efforts. Veterinarian Dr. Meghan Respess, director of blood banking, told me that when BluePearl launched its program in 2022, “nothing had been done like this at such a scale.” Because of a national blood supply shortage, veterinary hospitals can sometimes wait up to six months to receive the blood they need.

Dr. Respess adds that with this program, her team wants to “expand our blood donor pool so that we can essentially mitigate the pressures on all of the industry that it faces by supplying BluePearl hospitals directly.” They aim to supply 50 percent of their own demand with volunteer blood in two years and 100 percent of their demand in five years. And how will they get there? Education.

The more people know that pets can even be blood donors, the more the program grows, which will set BluePearl on track for meeting their ambitious goals.

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Why would a pet need a blood transfusion?

You never want your pet to have to have a blood transfusion, but emergencies happen. Dr. Respess says she sees the need arise often when dogs get into rat poisons that cause bleeding. It’s also a common procedure when pups get hit by cars or fall off of tall buildings (something she says she sees living in New York City).

Animal attacks are another reason a dog might need blood immediately. Or there are cancers that lead directly to bleeding, as well as kidney or liver disease. Parvovirus (especially in puppies and older dogs) is another cause of blood loss, as well as the mother of all pet emergencies, hemorrhagic gastroenteritis (HGE). Now that we’ve run through the nightmare, worst-case scenario situations, it’s worth saying that they’re all things no one wants to happen. But when they do, hospitals rely on having readily available blood that hasn’t expired.

“Some people just don’t even think about it unless they’ve been exposed to it in some way,” Dr. Respess adds. And especially in emergency care, lots of vets need blood transfusions for the same reasons that we do. It can be chronic illness, it can be trauma, it can be toxicity, there’s a lot of reasons that they can need blood, and when you need blood, you need it urgently.”

So, why is the supply so low?

Dr. Respess tells me that there just aren’t enough donors, plus there are only so many commercial blood banks in the U.S. that can provide blood, with the demand far exceeds the supply. This is why BluePearl aims to fully rely on their own supply, instead of having to reach out to other banks. Another thing that’s tricky: getting enough cat donors.

Heidi Grzeskowiak, national blood bank manager at BluePearl Pet Blood Bank, also weighed in with a very specific barrier: Only a few banks will even see cats, so it’s important that those who do come in have the kind of temperament that is conducive with giving blood. A tall order, but not impossible.

“Cats have their own personality, so [they] are hard to recruit,” Grzeskowiak says. “Cats, generally speaking, have to be sedated because they have to hold still.” She adds that there are sedation medications that can help, though. Plus, both cats and dogs go through a screening process to make sure they are a good fit for the program.

She continues: “We do have some required qualifications: Age is a big one, [they have to be] between one and eight years old. If they have preexisting conditions we have to make sure that they’re healthy. No heart murmur. If we notice anything, we do refer them to have a workup. Lab work has to come back all normal.”

This testing also includes feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and feline leukemia (FELV) screening. She adds that cat donors need to be at least 10 pounds, and dogs need to be at least 50 (though some sites will take a dog that is 40 pounds, if they have the proper equipment). Cats who qualify for the program have to be indoor-only kitties, and both cats and dogs who are fit need to have an agreeable temperament, which is measured during a behavioral screening.

“If they’re aggressive in any way or very nervous — although we can we get them sedation medications to help relax them — we will take that into consideration,” Grzeskowiak adds. “If they’re just too nervous for the program, we do not enroll them. Their wellbeing is always a priority.”

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OK, so if you want your pet to be a donor, what does the process look like?

If you’re interested in seeing if your dog or cat can be a volunteer blood donor, you’ll want to take the following steps:

• Go to the BluePearl Blood Bank website here to see which of their 15 locations is near you.

• On that same page, you will also find all the requirements that your pet needs to meet, as well as FAQs.

• If you want to move forward, reach out to the specific location you want to visit, and they’ll walk you through next steps. Then you’ll get set up for a pre-screening appointment for a behavior assessment. A vet will also do a full physical exam at that point. The vet will also take your pet’s blood to be sent out for a screening that will test for infectious diseases and their blood type.

• Thanks to BluePearl’s unique donor management program, once your pet becomes a donor (the appointment lasts about an hour), their blood gets a unique barcode that can be tracked. So, when your dog or cat’s blood is used to help another dog or cat, you will be notified. “You’ll get an email saying that your pet helped another that was in critical need of blood,” Dr. Respess says. “We’re excited about that because it feels good and to have that human bond.”

• Your pet can donate every eight to 12 weeks, which works out to about four to six times a year.

  
  Let’s hear from two of happy BluePearl donors.

Meet Maverick

Maverick is six years old. Since he enrolled in the program in July of 2022, he has donated blood six times. His mom, Rebecca Sarvey, tells Kinship how happy she is that her pup is able to help others:  “I’m a vet tech and have seen first-hand multiple pet’s lives saved by blood transfusions. I wouldn’t put him through donations if he even showed any sign of fear, but he doesn’t. He just loves coming to see all his human friends at the blood bank, and it’s a day of car rides, attention and goodies for him!”

Meet Oliver

Oliver is two years old. He has been a BluePearl volunteer donor since December 2023 and has donated four times. His mom, Deanne Leskowyak, says that it’s important that she and her pup give back: “I decided to enroll Oliver in the blood donor program for a few reasons. First, my previous dog donated for eight years, and I wanted to continue this tradition with Oliver. Most importantly, I have him donate to help other dogs when they need the most help.  The blood donor program is a wonderful way to give back.”