Helping friends in need

Tanner is a happy, playful miniature poodle. But at eight-years-old the little black dog suffers from a chronic illness. "He has diabetes," said his owner Kathy Jensen of Madison. "And diabetes dogs are prone to getting pancreatitis, which is what people get."

All too often family pets endure the same ailments common to their human parents. And like people, dogs and cats sometimes need emergency medical treatment.

Fortunately, Veterinary Emergency Service, a hospital with offices in Middleton and Madison’s East Side, offers a unique program that gets dogs and cats the care they need.

VES has one of the few on-site blood banks for domestic pets in southern Wisconsin. The clinic’s staff volunteer their dogs and cats to donate blood products for the treatment of sick and injured animals who need them.

The service VES provides was especially important one day when Tanner’s health took a turn for the worse. "He developed a pancreatic cyst that got huge," Jensen said. "He was in severe pain. He couldn’t even pick up his head for a day or two."

Standard treatments proved ineffective and Jensen was faced with the possibility of having to end Tanner’s life.

"The thought of putting him down was just unbearable," Jensen said.

But on the recommendation of her regular doctor, Jensen took her dog to VES in Middleton. There, Tanner received a transfusion of plasma that resulted in his complete recovery.

"We kept him in there a week," Jensen said. "But he came back to us. If he stays on a special diet and doesn’t have any relapses of the pancreatitis, he can live another five years. We just have to keep his diabetes in check."

Though the transfusion of plasma and whole blood products is standard practice for human patients, the same lifesaving procedure is often difficult or prohibitively expensive for dogs and cats.

"A single pint of blood can cost as much as $500," said VES veterinarian David Wirth. "And then there’s the cost of transporting it from the supplier and that’s if it’s even available."

Just as for humans, emergency blood supplies for dogs and cats require live donors. But as domestic pets are not likely to volunteer to be donors of their own accord, blood products for household animals are difficult to come by.

And once collected these products require extensive testing and processing to be used safely.

"There’s always the possibility of an infection that can be passed from one animal to another," Wirth said.

So commercial suppliers and medical centers like the UW-Madison Veterinary School often have to charge premium prices. "And that really adds to cost of treatment for our patients," Wirth said. "That’s why the donor program here has been so helpful in getting them care they need."

Melissa Lange is a certified veterinary technician and manages the VES blood donor program with veterinary assistant Beth Shuff.

"Our donors are awesome," Lange said. "They’re always willing to come in and donate. It’s nice to have the blood on hand. We can just reach in the fridge or freezer whenever we need it."

So when Tanner the miniature black poodle came to VES in need of plasma, he received it right away.

"We didn’t have to wait four or five hours to get it from the university," said hospital manager Chris Schriever.

Dogs and cats have different blood types, just like humans. And blood products have a limited shelf life, so the supply must be continually replenished.

Schriever said it’s only because of the volunteers that the program is possible.

"Right now a lot of our volunteers are doing this on their own time to get it going," Schriever said. "There isn’t a lot of money to be made off of this. It’s pretty much break even."

The program currently has eight dogs and two cats donating blood products.

For dog owners like Kathy Jensen, there’s no price too high when it comes to the health of the animals they love. "You can’t put a price on love, you just can’t," Jensen said.

James Edward Mills is a Madison freelance writer.