Donor Tails

My dog Penelope has an incurable bleeding disorder, and her blood does not readily clot. I had been putting off having her spayed because of the risk that she could bleed to death.

Last year when Sandy opened LifeStream Animal Blood Bank, Dr. Ross suggested that I contact them to see if they had any suggestions to help Penny survive a surgery.

Last October Billie & Bandit, my other 2 dogs, became blood donors. Each time they gave blood Sandy would save some of the plasma. Finally 2 months ago they had enough plasma in storage to make the Cryoprecipitate, which is a concentrate of coagulation factors, derived from Fresh Frozen Plasma. Penny would need infusions of this before, during and after her surgery to help her blood to clot. Without it, she could have bled to death. Bandit also donated a unit of whole blood to have on hand in case Penny needed a transfusion.

I am happy to report that Penny came through her surgery very well and is now back home with us. She did not need the whole blood transfusion.

However, there was another dog in desperate need of a transfusion the same day and Bandit's blood went to help save that dog's life.