Penn Veterinary Medicine | University of Pennsylvania

Blood Drive Information and Scheduling Tips

• Blood drives are held over a maximum of four hours. Once a unit of blood is collected, it must be processed within six hours and all the components placed under refrigeration or frozen to maintain the quality of the blood products. Penn Animal Blood Bank (PABB) staff must allow for travel time back to the Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital and actual processing time to maintain the highest quality in our blood products.
• When hosting a new blood drive, a minimum of 10 donors are required for the Animal Bloodmobile to make a visit. Once a blood drive is established, a minimum of eight donors are required for the Animal Bloodmobile to visit.
• Donors should be scheduled approximately every 20 minutes. If an owner has more than one dog donating, please schedule 15 minutes for each subsequent family donor.
• Each dog will receive one bag of Science Diet^® dry food or one case of Science Diet^® canned food as a sign of our appreciation for their life-saving blood donation. If possible, please ask each client for their food preference. This is helpful information if we are to meet the nutritional requests of all our donors. If possible, please call in or fax a list of food requests and, if possible, a copy of your blood drive appointment schedule.
• Once admitted to the blood donor program, owners are encouraged to have their dogs participate in three to four blood drives each year. PABB spends approximately $300 on a health screen (a variety of blood tests performed annually) for each donor. To offset the cost of these expensive laboratory tests, owners should be encouraged to make this commitment from the very beginning.
• If you have ANY questions regarding the blood-drive scheduling process or blood-donor requirements, please do not hesitate to contact PABB.