Canine Blood Donors - Screening and Health Maintenance

We are looking for dogs who are:

1. Healthy
2. Friendly and easy to work with (tolerate restraint well)
3. At least 50 lbs.
4. 1-7 years of age
5. On heartworm preventative
6. Up to date on vaccines
7. Not on medications (flea preventatives are acceptable)

If you have a pet dog who fits this description and you are interested in the program, here's what we would do at the clinic's expense:

1. Draw 18 mls of blood and submit 8 mls for DEA typing to see what blood type your dog is. We are primarily looking for DEA 4 or "universal donors", as well as DEA 1.1,4, which is a common blood type. The remainder of the blood is saved until DEA results are in.
2. If your dog's blood type is not one we can use, we would keep your information on file so that if/when we need more non-universal donors, we would continue on to step 3.
3. If the blood type is what we're looking for, then we would submit blood from step 1 to test for exposure to infectious diseases.
4. If results from step 3 are satisfactory, then we would draw a CBC (complete blood count), serum chemistry profile, and perform a physical exam.
5. If results from step 4 are satisfactory, then your dog would be put on a list which we would use to call dogs in when we need blood for a specific patient or when we need to bank blood for storage. We try to schedule the visit as often as possible (about every 6-8 weeks), but there are times when we may call last minute.
6. Once a donor is in the program, we provide the following:

• Annual bloodwork, to include a complete blood count (CBC) and serum chemistry profile
• An annual physical exam
• A $40.00 credit (to be used at the Hospital) or a large bag of food per donation

We require that all our donors have a heartworm check yearly and that they be on heartworm preventative. We also require that the donor be kept current on all vaccines. This is at the owner's expense.

If interested, please call 517-432-4546 or email walshr@cvm.msu.edu