Does your pet dog need blood transfusion? This app helps find donors

Launched in September this year by the Vice Chancellor of TANUVAS, Dr. C Balachandran at the Madras Veterinary College, Blood4Pet was developed under the Canine Research Centre (CRC) with funding from the Government of India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT).

The app is the brainchild of Dr. S Balasubramanian, Director of Clinics at TANUVAS; Dr. K G Tirumurugaan, a professor from the department of Animal Biotechnology; Dr. M Areshkumar, a research associate at CRC and Networks Project Monitoring unit.

Speaking to Indianexpress.com, Dr. S Balasubramanian said that the trio had hit upon the idea for the app while conducting a comprehensive medical programme for indigenous canines at Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu on October 29 last year.

During the programme, the doctors discovered that 70 per cent of the indigenous breed Chippiparai had Dog Erythrocyte Antigen (DEA) 1.1 -ve blood type. DEA 1.1 -ve blood group is a universal blood donor among canines, similar to the O +ve blood group among human beings.

“We decided that we need to create a database where we can pool data of donors with the blood group. Around 200 to 250 canine blood transfusions are done at the blood bank every year. We thought of creating an app that can help connect with voluntary blood donors,” said Dr. S Balasubramian.

Blood4Pet helps dog parents around the world network and contact each other in case of any emergency blood transfusion. Explaining the features of the app, Dr. Areshkumar said that Blood4Pet is available in three languages – Tamil, Hindi and English.

“The app helps pet parents search for canine donors by state and district within India and by country and city abroad. The list of donors on the app provides details such as owner’s name, phone number, location, dog breed, gender of the dog, colour and blood group. Pet parents have the option to contact the canine donor’s parent via text message or phone call or even share the details of the donor with other pet parents,” said Dr. Areshkumar.

Blood4Pet is an app that helps pet parents find canine blood donors for their pooch.

He added that the app also provides details for the pet owners to contact the nearest hospital or veterinarian for assistance.

Madras Veterinary College had conducted a voluntary blood donor campaign earlier this month to raise awareness on canine blood donation. Currently, India has only one canine blood bank which is situated at the Madras Veterinary College campus in Vepery, Chennai. Canine blood, when collected can only be stored for a maximum of three weeks, while frozen plasma can be stored up to one year. Hence, the blood bank stores blood on an as-needed basis.

While canine blood donation is not unheard of, it is not prevalent in Chennai due to a lack of awareness and hesitation on the part of the pet owners as they fear their dog might get infected. Allaying their fears, Dr. K G Tirumurugaan said that chances of infection are low since all dogs are screened before donation. “The blood bank officer screens dogs for protozoan diseases before collecting blood. Further, pet dogs are vaccinated on a regular basis so the chances of catching infection are quite low,” said the professor.

Explaining the collection process, Dr. K G Tirumurugaan and Dr. G R Bharanidharan, the blood bank officer said that officers at the blood bank in Vepery first screen the dog to check whether the necessary parameters for donation are met. After this, blood is collected from the canine. “The collection takes roughly 10 minutes” , said Dr. G R Bharanidharan.

While dogs can be given DEA 1.1 – ve blood the first time, blood typing is required for subsequent transfusions. “However, there are no blood typing kits available in India and the imported ones cost around Rs. 1200. We are working on developing an in-house blood typing kit”, said Dr. K G Tirumurugaan.

The app also features a veterinarian’s corner where veterinarians from across the world can register themselves on the app after uploading the necessary details and have one-on-one conversations with the doctors in case of any second opinions or queries.

Dr. S Balasubramanian said that while international standards state that dogs can donate blood once in three weeks, TANUVAS suggests having dogs donate their blood once every three months.

Although the app is only available for pet dogs at present, the trio of doctors are looking at adding pet cats on the list next.

Blood4Pet is currently available only for android phones and can be downloaded from Google Playstore or by visiting the Canine Research Centre and Networks website.