Chance for your cats and dogs to be save lives by becoming a blood donor to other pets

Dog and cat owners in Burton and South Derbyshire are being urged to put their pets forward to be blood donors.

Scarsdale Vets, which has a branch in Stapenhill, is working in conjunction with Pet Blood Bank UK for a dog blood donation session and cat blood typing event.

It will be held at Pride Veterinary Centre, in Derby, from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, April 21, and owners whose dogs meet the required criteria are being encouraged to register their canines to become blood donors at petbloodbankuk.org.

To become a blood donor dogs need to be:

Healthy and friendly
Aged between one and eight years
Weigh more than 25kg
Have current and up to date vaccinations
Not on any medication
No history of seizures, heart murmur or fainting episodes
Not travelled outside of UK
Have not received a blood transfusion

Prior to giving blood, all dogs will be given a thorough health check by a qualified vet. Owners are then encouraged to stay with their pets throughout the process and if the dogs show any sign of distress or discomfort, the donation will not go ahead.

Once taken, the blood is then processed and stored ready to be delivered to veterinary practices across the UK when they need it most – usually as a result of trauma, disease or during surgery.

Each unit of blood donated can help save up to four lives, with thousands of dogs' lives saved each year.

As well as dog blood donations, a team of veterinary nurses from Pride Veterinary Centre will be available to blood type cats.

All about the animals

As yet no one in the UK is able to store, process and distribute cat blood, which means that when a sick cat requires blood urgently, vets have to call upon nearby owners to bring cats with the same blood type in to help.

This is not always possible, so by inviting more cat owners to turn up, Scarsdale Vets hopes to build a larger database of cats which can be called upon in the event of an emergency.