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A blood bank for dogs! Yes, you read it right. Tamil Nadu University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences has opened a blood bank for dogs, the first of its kind in India.
The blood bank was opened two months ago and so far about 40 dogs have benefited from it.
Canine blood banks exist in European countries, Australia and the US, and having seen the usefulness of such blood banks in emergency, the University had been thinking on these lines for some time, says Dr Prathaban, Director of Clinics, Madras Veterinary College in Vepery.
"We have been offering blood transfusion to dogs, but many times we couldn't manage blood during emergencies. And, we have seen many dogs die due to lack of availability of blood. That's when we thought if we had donors in hand, we could give blood immediately and save an animal. We publicised the need to have as many donors as possible, and we were able to get 18 donors two months back," Dr Prathaban said.
"There were a lot of cases where we could not save the animals, as there was no blood available at the time of need. In fact, a cat owned by one of our staff members was brought here with multiple fractures but we could not save it; it had lost a lot of blood during the operation. But there was no blood here. Many people who lost their pets started asking us, 'why don't you have a blood bank when you have such a big hospital here?' That was the main motivation for us to start a blood bank for dogs," Dr Thangaraj, TANUVAS Vice Chancellor, said.
After doing blood grouping etc, the University announced to all the animal lovers that they had a blood bank for dogs. Today, they have 25 donors. They want to increase the number to 100 by yearend.
The University keeps one or two blood bags ready for emergencies. They can keep the blood for only 21 days. At the time of need, they call the donors so that they can take fresh blood for transfusion.
Dr Prathaban said they planned to extend the same service for cats also.