Can Your Pet Help Us
and Become a Blood Donor?

At Southfields, we are always looking for more cat and dog blood donors. Just as in human medicine, vets rely on pet blood donations to ensure a readily available supply of safe blood products for animals who need transfusions or for use in emergency care.

Find out using the criteria below if you can help us to help other pets in need.

If you think your pet could be a potential blood donor, we would love to hear from you.

Please contact out client care team on 01268 564664

Cats:

Aged between one and eight years old
Weigh over 4.5kg
Fit and healthy
Not pregnant or been pregnant
Not receiving any long-term medication
Up to date with vaccinations, flea, and worm treatments
Comfortable and relaxed with people
Have never travelled outside the UK and Ireland
Have never had a blood transfusion
Indoor cats are preferred, but not essential

Eligible cats will initially need to be screened for their suitability. This includes a physical examination and blood tests. The blood tests are to check the health and blood type of the donor cat, and to check for any diseases that could be transmitted by a blood transfusion.

What happens when your cat donates blood?

For the process of donation, a catheter is placed into the vein, many cats require sedation to make the process more comfortable for them. Blood is then collected from the jugular vein and a conscious donation will be attempted for those cats who tolerate blood sampling. Typically, 45 to 50ml of blood is collected.

After donating blood, cats are monitored for the following few hours, offered water, and fed. Additionally, they receive a drip / intravenous fluids for the initial four hours after the donation. Following this, donor cats can then be discharged home.

We recommend outdoor cats are kept indoors for the first 24 hours after donation.

Dogs:

Aged between one and eight years old
Weigh over 25kg
Fit and healthy
Not pregnant or been pregnant
Not receiving any long-term medication
Up to date with vaccinations, flea, and worm treatments
Comfortable and relaxed with people
Have never travelled outside the UK and Ireland
Have never had a blood transfusion

What happens when your dog donates blood?

A blood donation session takes 45 minutes in total with it only taking 10 – 15 minutes to collect blood. After the session dogs will receive water and a biscuit. Your pet should take the rest of the day to rest and return to their normal routine the following day.