Back in the beginning of August I took Gambler to WVRC to be screen for becoming a canine blood donor, if you missed that post you can read it here. He was examined, blood was drawn for different tests, a urinalysis was done and his blood was sent to a laboratory so his blood could be typed. The blood typing usually takes about three weeks.

The first step in becoming a Canine Blood Donor.

Last night Dr. Johnson from WVRC called me to give me the bad news, Gambler can not be a blood donor. His blood typing came back and he has one of the types of blood that can’t be used for donation. There are test kits that the emergency clinic uses to test the patients blood to find out what blood the patient is who needs the blood right at that moment. Then then can make a decision what blood type they can give the patient. In Gambler’s case they can not test for his type of blood when the patient is needing blood right at that moment as they don’t have a test kit for that type so they do not keep his blood type on hand. In order to find out if a patient has his type of blood they would need to send their blood out to an outside laboratory and the results would take too long to come back. Time is of the essence when a patient needs blood.

As for what does this mean for Gambler if he would ever need a blood transfusion? This means that he would be ok as they would just give him the type of canine blood that is considered the universal donor blood.

To say that I am disappointed is a understatement. I’ve been thinking of him becoming a blood donor ever since our first visit. I wanted to do something special with him and when the voicemail came though my heart just sake and I cried. I really didn’t think their would be a problem and he wouldn’t be able to donate. This guy has been able to do anything I ask of him until now. Even know he won’t be a canine blood donor hero he will still be my hero and in the eyes of the children he helps out at our therapy sessions.

Having a canine blood donor is still something I would like to do with one of my pets so I’m going to talk to the doctor about the possibility of testing Glory and seeing if she can become a donor. Since they are related I don’t know what the percentage would be that she couldn’t donate either.

I now understand why they have a donor program and are always looking for canine donors as with the different blood types they must say no to more canines than we would think. So how about you seeing if your pal can become a blood donor.