Even though great strides have been made by scientists of the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (Tanuvas) in canine blood transfusions, lack of adequate donors continues to remain a challenge. In order to bridge the gap, Tanuvas has launched a mobile app — Blood4Pet — to bring ‘pet-parents’ together across the country.
“As far as we know, this is a unique app since we have not come across any such an arrangement even in many developed nations. The app will help both pet owners and veterinarians to find suitable donors for their dogs,” said S. Balasubramanian, Director-Clinics, Tanuvas.
Modern blood bank
Tanuvas has a well-equipped, modern blood bank, and an ambulance to reach out to pet blood donors for collecting blood. Over 200 blood transfusions are done every year at Tanuvas in Chennai.
Dr. Balasubramanian said the app was user-friendly and pet-parents could register themselves and their dogs, along with name of the dog’s breed, its blood group, weight and address.
“Most pet-parents are unaware that their dogs can save the life of another dog through blood donation. You may not know that your neighbour has a dog and its blood can match that of your pet. The app will connect pet owners. There is also a feature in the app for veterinarians, through which they can interact among themselves on topics related to canine blood donation and issues arising out of transfusions,” he said.
Guidelines maintained
There’s also a provision in the app for calculating the amount of the blood required, which can be arrived at by veterinarians by entering the weight of the dog and the amount of blood needed. A dog can safely donate blood once in three weeks, but it should meet Tanuvas’ guidelines, which include adequate weight, and proper vaccination and de-worming of the dog.
“Dogs have two types of blood groups: DEA-1 Negative and DEA-1 Positive. Dogs with DEA-1 are universal donors. Native Indian dogs, particularly 70% Chippiparai dogs, if they are pure-breed, are DEA-1 negative,” explained K.G. Tirumurugan, Professor, Department of Animal Biotechnology, Tanuvas.
He explained that while a dog could accept any blood for the first time, blood-typing had to be done in subsequent transfusions.
“Blood-typing kits are costly and are currently imported. One kit costs ₹1,100 and research is progressing in Tanuvas for developing our own kit,” Dr. Tirumurugan said.
When asked if cats could be included in the list of blood donors, Dr. G.R. Baranidharan, Blood Bank Officer, Tanuvas said that very few cats were brought for transfusions. “We have done blood transfusion only for six cats this year,” he said.
Dr. Balasubramanian explained that cats, unlike dogs, were not put on a leach, and became strays.
“We are collecting details and will soon include ‘pet-parents’ of cats,” he said.
