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Blood donation service celebrates 20th anniversary
The team has been celebrating the anniversary.
The RVC’s programme has helped pets and supported research.

The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) is celebrating 20 years of its blood donation programme, which has helped save the lives of thousands of dogs and cats.

The service, which provides donated blood products to animals being treated at the RVC’s Small Animal Referral Hospital, was established in 2004. The first cohort of donors was made up of 19 dogs. Twenty years later, the service now has 150 dogs and 62 cats which regularly donate.

In addition to helping pets, the service has also been the focus of research carried out by the RVC into topics including the welfare of donors, using dog blood to help cats, and the storage of cat blood. This has led to the RVC becoming the only organisation in the UK to store feline blood products.

As it marks the anniversary, the RVC’s charity, the Animal Care Trust, has launched an appeal to raise £150,000 towards new purpose-built blood donor facilities. The planned facilities will include separate areas for dog and cat donors, as well as space for a laboratory to process and store the donated blood products.

Dan Chan, professor of emergency and critical care medicine at the RVC, said: “I've seen first-hand how blood donations help pets every single day and the ground-breaking clinical treatment and expert care that is provided at the hospital.
 
“Thanks to our special donors, blood transfusions have saved thousands of lives at the RVC over the last two decades and there are many more in need of help. Therefore, this appeal is essential in allowing us to expand and enhance our current facilities to ensure even more cats and dogs can be treated.

“Anything you donate will be hugely appreciated and help us to achieve this important goal.”

Donations to the charity can be made online.

Image © Royal Veterinary College

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Antibiotic Amnesty survey opens

News Story 1
 The Responsible Use of Medicines Alliance - Companion Animal and Equine (RUMA - CA&E) has launched a survey which seeks to measure the success of this year's Antibiotic Amnesty campaign.

Its results will help the group to calculate how many unused or out-of-date antibiotics were returned as part of the campaign throughout November. Practices are also asked how they engaged with clients to raise awareness of the issue.

Participating practices can enter a prize draw to win up to 100 in vouchers for taking part. Further prizes from BSAVA and Webinar Vet will be available for practices with the best input.

The survey takes a few minutes to complete and will be running throughout December. It can be accessed via this link

Click here for more...
News Shorts
NSA survey investigates sheep worrying

The National Sheep Association (NSA) has launched its latest survey to better understand the severity of sheep worrying in the UK.

The survey will be open until Friday, 21 February 2025. UK sheep farmers are invited to share their experiences of sheep worrying by dogs and its impact on the industry.

NSA has been gathering information about sheep worrying for over 10 years as part of its campaign to raise awareness of incidents and produce new ways of educating the public.

Sheep worrying, often caused by dogs being loose near fields, can result in physical injury, miscarriage and death of animals affected.

The results of the survey will be shared with interested parties, including the UK press, before spring and ahead of lambing season next year.

For more information, or to complete the survey, visit NSA's website.