Pet Blood Bank Needs Funds To Expand

Pet Blood Bank UK, (PBBuk) is one year old. It was set up last March as the first UK-wide blood service for pets, collecting, processing, storing and supplying canine blood products.

The charity now has 420 regular dog donors from across the country on its register and has collected 600 units of blood cells. It has now launched its first series of monthly blood collection sessions, travelling the UK collecting donations from dogs.

Wendy Barnett, Executive Director of PBBuk, is a qualified veterinary nurse with a diploma in surgical nursing. Talking about the anniversary, she said:

"We've held over 50 donor collection sessions and have seen some donors return four times so we've been getting to know them and their owners well.

"In acute emergency situations patients often die for want of blood. Our products are making a huge difference as vets are able to have blood products ready to help save injured or sick dogs in life or death situations.

The pet blood bank carries out approximately two blood collection sessions per week and has recently developed monthly collection sessions at a veterinary practice in Leicester. Blood is generally collected at practices near to PBBuk’s Loughborough base because of time restrictions on collecting and processing blood products effectively – although the charity has travelled as far north as Stirling.

PBBuk is now looking to purchase a fully equipped mobile unit to enable it to organise blood collection sessions anywhere in the UK. The blood would be collected and processed immediately which would allow dogs across the country to donate.

With a long-term plan to make transfusion medicine available for all UK pets, the Pet Blood Bank is currently researching the development of a feline service which would provide blood collected from UK pet cats – following the same high welfare and ethical standards as for their donor dogs.