Blood Donor Program

BHVH K-9 Blood Donor Program Guidelines

1. Patient must be 40 pounds
2. Patient must be 1 year of age
3. The patient may donate up to 3 times a year, no more than 3 months apart.
4. Patient needs to be up to date on Rabies, Distemper, Lepto, and Lyme Vaccines
5. Patient must have a Heartworm and Tick panel completed annually
6. Patient must be maintained on HW, Flea, and Tick preventative year-round
7. The patient should have organ function testing performed annually, depending on age.

BHVH will provide patient care at no cost:

• An initial Blood typing
• 1 Year’s worth of Heartworm Preventative.
  • 12 doses of Heartgard or Sentinel
• A complete blood count and chemistry are performed annually at no cost
• Access to all medical results performed while donating blood
  • CBC results, HWT, and tick panel results

Enrollment Process

• Patient must have a physical exam with a BHVH doctor within the past 90 days.
• At the initial exam, a CBC and chemistry will be sent to Antech.  If a senior patient, a senior profile should be submitted
• No cost to owner
• A blood typing will be performed and attached to the patient's file
  • No cost to owner
• An acuplex should be run, and DA2PPL and Lyme Vaccines should be updated if not current
  • Standard fees to the owner for these services

 Donation Process: 

• The owner will be called to provide a patient for blood donation within 24 hours.  In most cases, same-day availability is required.
• Upon presentation, the patient will have a flex 4 test and a CBC run.  These results will be available to the owner at no cost. 
• Patient will be sedated and have 1 or 2 units of blood harvested, depending on size and need.
• Patient will be administered SQ fluids to replace the volume of blood removed
• Patient will have sedation reversed and sent home 

Patient disqualified from program:

• Patients will not be allowed to enroll in the program if there are any concerns about medical issues that could jeopardize the health of the donor patient or the recipient. 
• Diseases that would disqualify a patient include, but are not limited to:
  • Immune-mediated diseases
    • ITP or IMHA
  • Tick-Borne Disease
    • Lyme, anaplasmosis, or erlichia
  • Neoplasia
  • Bartonella
  • Immune suppressive Treatments- Chronic steroids, chemo, cyclosporine, etc.