All-Around LIFE SAVERS

Man’s best friend steps up to save lives, in more ways than one.

Story and photos by Kennedy Mounce, student writer

In 2015, the Veterinary Health Center announced that its previous in-house blood donation program would now be open to the public. Since then, the program has seen several furry faces contribute to the blood bank for fellow patients.

Under the current supervision of Brooke Neiberger, oncology veterinary nurse, the program has nearly six times the amount of donors as when it was handed off to her two years ago.

Blood Types and the Greyhound Colony

Dog blood types are very different than human blood types. They receive one of two distinctions, either positive or negative, and similarly to human blood, negative blood can be given to any dog while positive blood can only be given to other positive dogs. The greyhound colony that started this whole program is based on this important factor of their blood type.

“So, I don’t know the exact stat, but greyhounds are more likely to have negative blood types,” says Neiberger. “The hospital actually used to have a greyhound colony before I started, like 20 years ago or so, and the students would take care of the dogs that were here and then they would pull from them once or twice a week.”

This program is what launched the community, volunteerbased system the VHC operates now. Neiberger raves about the benefits of this system; however, this change has not come without its challenges for her and the program.

“I screen so many dogs, but not many are accepted. So about one in ten get accepted because they have to have the right blood type to get accepted. I can get a lot of the positive blood type, a lot of dogs come back as being positive, but I can only have a certain amount of them in the program because we don’t use it as often. I have 15 [positive donors] in program currently, but the negative blood can go to anybody.”

Her full-time job as an oncology nurse sometimes interferes with the dedication she can provide to the program as the only nurse who is assigned to do the donations. Her dreams and hopes remain high, however, when it comes to expanding and growing the program into what she believes it can be.

Saving Lives All Around

Meet Hazzy, short for Trip Hazard, belonging to MaRyka Smith, dual DVM and Ph.D. student; Hazzy serves double duty in saving lives at the VHC as a blood donor and in her free time through another interesting type of service.

“Hazzy performs HRD — human remains detection or cadaver dog,” MaRyka says. “I brought her home at about eight weeks and at our first certification test, she was about 15 months old and we are due for recertification this summer and we have actually received a scholarship to pay for the seminar that we will do our certification at in early August in Iowa.”

Hazzy and MaRyka serve as a team in human remains detection searches all across the United States. While most of their searches have been in Kansas, they have been called to do searches in other states such as Iowa. Their dedication to training and to the job behind it all is what truly makes them such a great duo.

“She loves working,” MaRyka says. “For her it’s just a game, find the smell and then she gets her toy. Her favorite thing is a ball on a rope. She loves people, loves to go places and loves snacks. Overall, she’s just a standard Labrador, eats about everything.”

When it comes to blood donation, Hazzy’s ability to remain calm and dedicated to the task comes in handy. Her calm nature has made her a perfect candidate for the blood program and has provided several benefits to both her and MaRyka.

“I think the benefits certainly outweigh the risks — there’s a risk every time you put a hole in a dog with a needle but the benefit of them getting their annual blood work done, a bag of food, and all of their preventatives paid for is worth it. There is no anesthetic risk to it, they just lay on the table, and as long as dog is fine with being restrained, even that’s not an issue. If the dog is panicky or not the best with strangers, being a donor might not be the best fit for them, but for one like Hazzy — she was a first-year anatomy learning subject — it’s nothing outlandish for her and nothing but benefit for us and for the pets who receive the blood.”

Hazzy and her owner MaRyka Smith, after a blood donation.

The “Why” Behind It All

Despite the trials that the program has faced, the results from the program have created a truly amazing result for patients, donors and owners alike.

“Just as in human medicine, blood products (whole blood, packed red blood cells, fresh frozen plasma) are crucial for therapy of a number of diseases in our patients,” says Dr. Kenneth Harkin, professor and section head of small animal internal medicine. “It could be a dog that has lost a lot of blood in surgery or after being hit by a car, a dog that ingested rat poison and is bleeding, or any of a number of other diseases resulting in severe anemia. If we didn’t have these blood products available to use from our donors, we would not be able to save a lot of the patients we save today.”

MaRyka has experienced the benefits of this life-saving program first-hand. Her testimony of Hazzy’s donations are what bring the reality of this program to life.

“I got a text one night from a student who was working in the ICU,” MaRyka recalls. “They had used her blood and they had recognized her name as the donor so that was kind of heartwarming to know that she really had potentially saved another dog. I just feel like if it’s a way we can give, it’s great because it doesn’t cost us anything extra it’s certainly worthwhile — kind of like me getting cookies after donating blood.”

Everyone involved in the Canine Blood Donor Program has their own reason behind their participation, as saving lives is an everyday activity in this field. This program is certainly no exception to that rule, but it can only truly fulfill that role with enough volunteer donors. To learn more about the program, visit www.ksvhc. org/services/specialty-services/internal/ canine-blood-donor-program.html or email vhcblooddonor@vet.k-state.edu.