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| Donors
must be young to middle age: |
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2 years to 10 years
of age. |
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| Weight
Consideration: |
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Canines
must be at least 40 pounds (at ideal body weight). |
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Felines must be at
least 4 pounds. |
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| Donors
must be in good systemic health: |
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They must
be generally healthy and canines must have been vaccinated
at least for rabies, distemper, hepatitis, and parvo virus.
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Exclusions: malignancies,
diabetes, septicemia, bacteremia, autoimmune disorders,
ingestion of toxic substances, recent exposure to or history
of rabies, distemper, or parvovirus, general unexplained
lethargy or malaise. |
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Note: Animals with
acute trauma (including fractures), hip dysplasia, or
other bone-involved conditions such as osteochondritis
dessicans may be acceptable as bone donors, as long as
the condition is not contagious or transmissible. Please
call to consult with us. |
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 Logistics
and Answers to Commonly Asked Questions: The owner may bring up their
interest in tissue donation or you can bring it up with them if you feel
that tissue donation might be an appropriate and helpful option to offer
to your client. If their pet appears to be within the criteria described
above, we recommend that you give them our donor brochure and information
sheet to review. If they are interested in donation, PLEASE have someone
call us to discuss the case before promising anything to your client.
We would like to be involved with final determination of donor suitability
and coordination of the recovery. After this, they can be given 2 copies
of the consent
to review and sign (one to be left at your clinic for us to have and one
for them to keep if they like).
We need to recover tissue grafts within 12 hours of death. Therefore,
we do not necessarily need to be there at the time of death. This means
that the owner can be with their pet at that time if they prefer, and
we do not need to disturb them or rush them through their grieving.
We do not perform the euthanasia procedure. This must be performed
in your clinic and is part of the interaction between you and your client.
When the animal is euthanized, we will need to have you draw a blood sample
(2 red top tubes) to test for transmissible diseases. We send one out
for serology testing (canines: brucella, heartworm antigen, and a tick-borne
disease panel and felines: FELV and FIV) and we archive the other serum
sample.
We will normally move the donor to our facility where we have specially
designed operating rooms to perform the surgical recovery of the tissue
grafts. Although, in some instances it may be possible or preferable to
use the operating room facilities at the clinic where the animal is euthanized.
In that case, and of course with your permission, we would bring all our
own instruments and supplies, and would require use of an operating room
for approximately 2 hours.
Typically, we recover the long bones of the limbs and corneas. Your clients
may want to know that it is a surgical procedure, but it is performed
only after the heart has stopped beating and there is no pain or suffering
for their pet.
After recovery, if the owners wish, we can have the donor privately
cremated and the ashes returned (usually in a nicely finished cedar
box, although urns are available if they desire.) There is no charge to
the owners for this. We perform the recovery as soon as possible after
asystole within the 12 hour time period, but the cremation process and
return of ashes can take up to an additional 1 or 2 weeks.
There is no cost to the owner for choosing donation. We will cover
all costs for tissue recoveries, testing, and cremation. Please call us
if you have any questions. We can be reached toll-free at (800) 558-5223.
Thank you for your efforts to assist us and the pets needing transplant
grafts.
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