The Small Animal Specialist Hospital (SASH) is asking pet owners to volunteer their pets for urgently needed dog and cat blood donations.
SASH are a 24-hour emergency and referral hospitals which sees around 25,000 patients a year, many of whom require lifesaving blood transfusions.
Brooke Koster, veterinary nurse and the Canine and Feline Blood Bank Manager, said donations are urgently needed to fill the bank after a busy summer.
“Coming out of summer, we ran through a lot of our supply supporting patients who had to be treated for a range of conditions such snake bites, rat bait toxicity, critical autoimmune disease patients, and ICU patients.”
Dogs, like humans, are able to donate every three months and Koster said that they have owners who are on the same donation schedule as their pets.
“We’re on the lookout for new regular donors who can join our donor program. We have a few criteria to make sure pets are safely able to donate like age and weight requirements and for cats, we check that they have a good disposition.
“All our donors are given a free yearly vet check by the team at SASH as well as a blood screen test to make sure they’re fit and healthy before donation and they even walk home with a bag full of treats! As well as the pride that they’ve helped their fellow dogs and cats.”