Blood Transfusions

We have the in house technology to collect and store various blood products which are vital when treating some critical patients, and have a number of clients with large dogs who generously allow them to be blood donors. We collect and store red blood cells and keep fresh frozen plasma and frozen plasma (slightly different products), giving us the ability to provide these blood products to other practices that may need them urgently.

 A unit of blood (approximately 450ml) is collected in a similar fashion to humans.

The blood is chilled, centrifuged and separated into components of plasma and packed red blood cells (pRBCs).

Plasma is used for dogs with rat bait poisoning, pancreatitis, severe sepsis, parvovirus infection, DIC, Haemophilia, von Willebrands disease and other blood clotting abnormalities.

pRBCs are used mainly for anaemias or blood loss resulting from wounds or surgery.