Information for pet owners
Why Blood
Veterinary medicine, like human medicine, continues to develop and improve with each passing day, and with it come innovations and new ways to care for our beloved four-legged friends. In Europe and the US, it has long been found that the use of various blood products for animals provides a solution to a large number of diseases and medically dangerous conditions, improves healing ability and shortens recovery time.
With each published study, we learn more and more about how this wonderful natural resource can be used for healing and assistance.
So what is blood and how does it help?
Blood is a collective name for the thick red fluid that flows through our blood vessels and those of dogs and cats.
Blood consists of two main parts:
The cellular part consists mostly of red blood cells. Also white blood cells and platelets.
The liquid part (plasma) - an amber-coloured fluid containing various types of proteins, proteins that help blood clotting, antibodies, proteins used to transport nutrients and others with equally important functions, various salts (sodium, potassium, calcium, etc.) required for the body's normal systemic activity.
The goal of providing A blood product is to give the animal in need the part it needs most about the disease or condition it is in.
How does it work
Vet Source works in collaboration with various animal societies and associations as well as municipal kennels, for the welfare of the animals:
With the aim of providing a service to veterinarians throughout the country and enabling them to give the best care to which dogs are entitled, the same care that can save their lives.
The aim is to help the dogs in the donating societies and associations who need veterinary blood products in the largest quantity and which they receive as part of their generosity. As well as veterinary medicines and clinical veterinary assistance from the Vet Source team of veterinarians.
But how does it actually work?!
Well, Vet Source maintains a list of donors from every association and non-profit organization. Those generous donors undergo medical examinations and various blood tests to ensure that they are healthy enough to donate blood and that they do not endanger the recipient or themselves by donating blood.
The blood taken from donors is a product known as whole blood, meaning that it is blood that contains both the liquid part and the cellular part that we talked about earlier. On the surface, this sounds great, but the problem is the short lifespan of whole blood (up to 24 hours at most when kept refrigerated). Once whole blood is "collected" from the donor - its lifespan is very short and if it is not used within this short period of days, it is considered unsuitable and must be destroyed, which is a huge waste.
On the other hand, if we separate the whole blood into its two components (cellular part, liquid part), then its lifespan will be significantly extended, which means that it will be available to the veterinary public and hence to the animals regularly.
Therefore, at Vet Source, after we have "taken" the whole blood, we rush to our laboratory while the blood is kept in a special refrigerator. When the whole blood arrives, tests are performed to determine its quality and the type of blood group it belongs to (like humans, our four-legged friends also have different blood types and a match must be made between the donor's blood type and that of the recipient), a special test for parkworm antibodies, and a microscopic examination for the integrity of the product. After all of these are found to be normal, the whole blood goes to the next stage in the chain, which is the cirrhosis stage.
Centrifugation is the stage where we separate the whole blood into its two main components using a special centrifuge used specifically for this purpose.
Now, after centrifugation, we have the two parts in the same original blood bag with the liquid part (amber and lighter) floating above the cellular part (red and heavier) and they appear under the following names:
"Cell concentrate" - This product contains only the cellular part with very little of the liquid part and a special liquid added and its function is to prevent the red blood cells from clotting. The product has a dark red colour.
"Plasma" - This product contains only the liquid part without any cells. The product has an amber colour.
At this stage, the products are packaged separately and stored in a different place. The cell concentrate is refrigerated at a temperature between 1-6 degrees while the plasma goes into the freezer and is kept at a temperature of -18 degrees, where they will wait until their use
Many do not know, but these two products (cell concentrate and plasma) are used for a wide variety of treatments and help with recovery in many cases of serious illnesses.
There are a significant number of dangerous diseases and clinical cases in which blood products are the difference between life and death.
The question arises as to how blood products work:
"Cell concentrate" - as we have learned, is a product that contains essentially a very high concentration of red blood cells. Red blood cells primarily serve as carriers of oxygen in the body, which is necessary for every cell to function. When their number is low, there is a lack of oxygen in the body, even though it is abundant in the air, and hence the cells in the body are damaged because they cannot "breathe" without oxygen and they eventually die, and with them the various systems of the body collapse. "Cell concentrate" comes to help by providing a generous dose of red blood cells to make up for the deficiency that has arisen, thus maintaining the respiratory process of the body's cells and leaving the animal suffering from deficiency in a stable state.
By doing so, they actually give the animal an additional extension of time in which its body can recover and even hopefully produce its own red blood cells in sufficient quantity to live, as well as an opportunity for the treating veterinarian to continue treatment with the aim of leading to the animal's full recovery.
In general, there are three situations in which a blood shortage can occur:
Severe bleeding - internal or external, which can be caused by many reasons such as a bleeding injury (internal, external), a car accident (internal, external bleeding), tumors, and more.
Destruction of red blood cells (inside the body) - autoimmune diseases, a group of diseases defined by the body's immune system itself attacking the body's cells. In this case, it is a disease in which the immune system attacks the red blood cells and leads to their destruction and thus to a shortage.
Lack of production, defective production - there are diseases that lead to the suppression of the natural production of red blood cells - diseases Damage to the bone marrow and kidneys can create a shortage of production and thus a total shortage of red blood cells.
"Blood concentrate" is of high value as a pre-operative treatment when a blood transfusion is needed to stabilize the patient and improve the chances of recovery and recovery.
"Plasma" - as we have learned, is the liquid medium in which red blood cells are originally found and contains proteins and other components that are used to maintain the regular functioning of all life systems in the body. Proteins, antibodies, blood clotting proteins, salts and others are only a part of what plasma contains, and every day we learn about another miracle component present in this amazing fluid and how it helps in dealing with another disease. Therefore, plasma is today the most popular and useful of all blood products.
The uses of plasma are many and varied, we will list just a few of them:
Use against poisoning (rat poison, snake bites, etc.)
Liver diseases - help with the blood clotting system.
Systemic infections - pancreatitis
Pre-operative treatment in sick dogs and cats with concerns about problems with the blood clotting system.
Puppy diseases (in combination with blood concentrate)
And the list goes on.
There are many situations in which it is preferable to use "plasma" and "cell concentrate" together to improve recovery capacity and treatment effectiveness.
Blood products constitute the next step in animal medicine and significantly improve the veterinarian's treatment capabilities as well as the animal's chances of recovery and coping.