The gift of giving extends to man’s best friend

Posted 12/29/16

Bella, a 2-year-old hound dog, recently paid a visit to Red Barn Veterinary Services in Powell, suffering from respiratory distress; tests indicated she had immune mediated thrombocytopenia, a disease in which the body attacks its own blood …

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The gift of giving extends to man’s best friend

Posted

Four-legged hero donates blood to furry friend in need

The season of giving is here, and with it, reminders of how a simple gesture of kindness can be a life-saver for someone in need. But this season also showed the ability to give isn’t always limited to people.

Bella, a 2-year-old hound dog, recently paid a visit to Red Barn Veterinary Services in Powell, suffering from respiratory distress; tests indicated she had immune mediated thrombocytopenia, a disease in which the body attacks its own blood platelets.

“When we ran Bella’s blood work, we discovered that she didn’t have any visible platelets,” said Dr. Tori Lewis. “Platelets are needed to clot blood. What had happened was the normal airflow in her lungs had caused an abrasion, and without any platelets to clot, her lungs began to fill. That’s where her respiratory issues came from.”

Needing to replenish Bella’s platelet count, Lewis decided a blood transfusion was the best course of action. All that was needed was a donor — and one of Red Barn’s own employees stepped forward.

“Our vet tech Camaren Boettcher brought in her dog,” Lewis said. “His name is Scout; he’s a big dog, a yellow Lab. We brought him in and ran his blood to see if he was as healthy as he seemed, and we were ready to go.”

After Scout was made comfortable, he was hooked up to a blood collection bag, much like the kind humans use during a Red Cross visit. The staff extracted what they needed and Scout was back to his tail-wagging self, his good deed done for the day.

“He was pretty excited because it meant he got an extra cookie,” Lewis said. “Being a Labrador, that’s a big deal.”

Interestingly enough, blood type isn’t necessarily a factor in a transfusion between dogs, at least initially. Lewis explained that, despite dogs having more blood types than humans, dogs do not have alloantibodies, meaning the species doesn’t possess the antibodies that attack other blood types, essentially giving dogs a “freebie.”

“With humans, you have to cross-match blood type, because we have antibodies that will automatically attack any transfused blood,” she said. “But in dogs, they don’t have that, so the first one is free.”

That’s not to say that Scout and Bella have the same blood type. If Bella needed to be transfused again, the blood types would need to be cross-matched to ensure compatibility.

“It’s possible Scout could donate for her again,” Lewis said. “But I would never do it without cross-matching next time.”

Once the transfusion was complete, Lewis and Boettcher monitored Bella closely in case the procedure didn’t take.

“Bella did really great with the whole process,” Lewis said. “It was amazing, she was laying here so weak, she wasn’t able to even pick up her foot. After the transfusion, she ate a little snack that afternoon, and the next morning her tail was beating against the kennel, and we were like ‘Yep, I think we’re better.’”

Her prognosis good, Bella was able to go home a couple of days later. She still takes meds to help resolve the respiratory “junk” in her chest, but Dr. Lewis expects her to be her old self in no time.

“She’s doing really great,” Lewis said. “Hopefully we won’t have to do anything like that again.”

As for the hero of the day, Scout the Big Yellow Lab took everything in stride. For him, it meant a ride in the car, a chance to say hello to the other animals at the clinic and extra treats.

That’s not to say everyone was excited about Scout’s participation in the procedure, however. Eleven-year-old Kelden Boettcher had to be convinced his dog would be coming home at the end of the day.

“Scout is my son’s bestest pal,” Camaren Boettcher said. “When I told him Scout was going to be a blood donor, Kelden’s concerns were, ‘Is he going to be OK?’ He didn’t understand right away that Scout wasn’t giving a life for another life. But I convinced Kelden his buddy was going to be fine. He wanted a picture as soon as I got to work of the dog that was going to get Scout’s blood.”

“He was pretty worried, and when I got home, he was like “How did he do?’ I told him Scout did a great job — he saved a dog’s life today.”

Transfusions between dogs aren’t an everyday occurrence, at least for rural clinics, but they are more common than one might think. Lewis has performed several, including one memorable case where she wasn’t sure she’d be able to find a donor. Luckily, a dog that would fit the bill was already at the clinic.

“I needed to do a transfusion for a doberman who was a hemophilia patient,” Lewis said. “We just happened to have a big dog in the hospital who had been there for a neuter. He’d only lost about six drops of blood during his procedure, so we called the owner and asked if we could borrow some red blood cells for the doberman. They were like, ‘Absolutely. Heck yeah, we’ll help save a dog.’”

“We have really good owners in this area, it’s pretty cool,” she said.

Happy endings, especially this time of year, are always popular, and Dr. Lewis said she is glad she could add Bella and Scout’s encounter to the list.

“People love their pets,” she said. “This story was a fun way to celebrate the giving season.”

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