Did Your Pet Ever Donate Blood? Hyderabad Begins Signing up Donor Pets.

_{This dog rescued by Shiva died of extensive bleeding in the want of blood

_{Image courtesy: The Better India}}

Last week I casually ran a poll to check the awareness level on this issue. I was shocked to see that almost 75% respondents were not aware of animal blood banks and their pets' blood groups.

This is probably because Animal Blood Banks and their Blood Donor Database doesn't exist everywhere.

This is very unfortunate as animals and pets die for the want of blood in case of injury or illness. During summers and monsoon season, there is a rise in tick fever among pets and most animals get severe anemia. Animals also need blood transfusions during accident and injury cases. Every day several pet dogs die due to lack of blood and lack of awareness about the process of blood donation.

Animal Blood Bank, at OUAT, Odisha

In India, it was only a couple of years back when Odisha State took an initiative to establish country's first blood bank for animals. But this government supported initiative was more focused on saving lives of cows and bovine animals than others.

Animal Blood Line at Hyderabad

But in the absence of any other blood banks, animals and pets in other places were suffering regularly. So last month on World Blood Donor Day, 14 June 2019, Hyderabad based Electrical Engineer Shiva Kumar Varma started a noble project as a free service to all pet owners. He started to build and keep an online database of blood donors at Animal Blood Line.

Currently Shiva is focussing on big cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai to collect donor database but plans to extend the service to smaller cities later on. The idea is to bridge the gap between animal blood donors and animals in need.

According to Animal Blood Line website, your pet dog is eligible to become a blood donor if it meets the following criteria:

Should be between 1 and 8 Years old
Should be Clinically Fit and Active
Should weight a minimum of 15 Kgs
Should have been vaccinated in the past 12 months (not within 2 weeks) and Dewormed Periodically
Female donors should not be Pregnant or Lactacting
Shouldn’t have Donated Blood within 3 Months
Should be free from Infectious and Haemoprotozoan diseases and other serious ailments
Should not have received Blood Transfusion before
Should not be under any Medication
How is the blood taken from my dog?

Similarly, criteria for a donor cat is listed as:

Should be between 1 and 8 Years old
Should be clinically Fit and Active
Should weight a minimum 4.5 Kgs
Should have been vaccinated in the past 12 months (not within 2 weeks) and Dewormed periodically
Female donors should not be Pregnant or Lactacting
Shouldn’t have donated blood within 3 months
Should be free from infectious and haemoprotozoan diseases and other serious ailments
Should not have received Blood Transfusion before
Should not be under any Medication
How is the blood taken from my Cat?

For more details, please head on to Animal Blood Line website and register your pet there.

Thank you!