SASH provides life saving blood transfusions for both dogs and cats
As a 24-hour emergency and referral hospital, SASH sees more patients requiring life-saving blood transfusions than most veterinary practices. Having identified the need for an in-house blood bank service to meet the ever-growing demand for blood transfusions in seriously ill patients, SASH established its own in-house Canine Blood Bank back in 2007 and has now also expanded into a Feline Blood Bank. What initially started out as a handful of SASH’s dedicated team members volunteering their own pets to donate blood has now grown to over 100 privately owned dogs and cats on the SASH Donor List.
With a staff of dedicated veterinary specialists, emergency veterinarians and highly trained nurses, SASH sees a wide variety of cases requiring life-saving blood transfusions for acute bleeding or anaemia. Patients that are victims of trauma, poisonings, auto-immune disease or bleeding associated with surgery all depend on blood donated by healthy dogs and cats
Canine
- Is healthy and up-to-date with vaccinations, heartworm prevention and worming;
- Is aged between 1-7 years old;
- Weighs at least 14 kg (although over 25 kg is ideal) and is not overweight;
- Has no significant current or previous illness;
- Has never received a blood transfusion;
- Has a friendly and obedient demeanour; and
- Is able to lie still for 5-10 mins
- Large bag of premium dog food OR premium parasite treatment
- Vet check
- Blood test
Some of our canine blood donor heroes:







Feline
- Could your cat become a blood donor and help save the lives of other cats in need? Requirements include:
- Good disposition. Tolerates needles and restraint with light sedation
- Weighs at least 4 kg lean body weight. Not significantly overweight
- If male, needs to be desexed and females need to be spayed with no previous pregnancy
- No previous blood transfusions
- Between 1 to 8 years of age
- Current on annual vaccination (minimum of F3)
- Indoor only (no unsupervised outdoor time)
- Receives routine flea/parasite prevention
- Should not be taking any medications other than flea/tick preventatives
- Have a normal physical exam on initial evaluation by one of the veterinarians at the SASH
- Bag of premium cat food OR vaccination
- Vet check
- Blood test
Some of our feline blood donor heroes:





Want more information?
Whether it is a one-off donation, or a regular contribution, your dog will become a life saver.
For more information, please call our Blood Bank team
North Ryde, NSW Phone (02) 9190 6805 or email bloodbank@sashvets.com.
Adelaide, SA Phone (08) 8133 5300 or email adelaidebloodbank@sashvets.com