Each blood donation can save up to three lives, and a New South Wales vet has found a way to make her donation go even further. Dr Felicity Cole notices nurses discarding small amounts of leftover saline IV fluid with each donation. While it is not fit for humans, she knew it could be a life saver for sick and injured animals – recognising how many vet clinics also struggle with the global IV fluid shortage.
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00:00Russell, the domestic short-haired cat, is being put on a drip while he undergoes a biopsy
00:11for an oral tumour.
00:12We would put an animal on a drip somewhere between three and eight times a day.
00:17He's getting the saline he needs despite a global intravenous fluid shortage, thanks
00:23to an idea that came to his vet at the blood bank.
00:26I was aware that that product was being used but a large amount of it was probably spare
00:32or being discarded.
00:33If an IV bag is partially used or expired, it's no longer deemed safe for humans but
00:39can be safely repurposed for animals.
00:42So Felicity Cole asked Lifeblood if they would consider donating their leftover saline to
00:47her Newcastle clinic.
00:48We knew we were not going to be able to provide our service and that first we may have to
00:53start scaling back the routine things to prioritise the fluids for things that were
00:58acute or an emergency but a lot of those routine things still affect dogs and cats' quality
01:03of life and comfort so it really was going to have a huge impact that we had no IV fluids.
01:08Lifeblood were quick to jump on board.
01:11We thought this could be really important in helping to save the lives of these animals
01:16but there was certainly some work to do from our end to get approval to donate that saline
01:22but also to put procedures in place.
01:24Lifeblood developed a system where nurses heat seal the partially used IV bags so they
01:29can be safely donated.
01:30The nurses said, but it's half used, is it going to be enough, there's only 200ml in
01:35that bag and what they're forgetting is that a cat weighs 4kg and so 200ml of fluid for
01:42a cat might be 10 or 20 hours of fluids.
01:46Lifeblood's quickly become a national program, with Lifeblood providing around 5,000 bags
01:52of saline to more than 100 vets and animal clinics each month.
01:57And it's not just helping cats and dogs.
02:00At Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, IV fluids help provide life-saving treatment to animals
02:06suffering from accidents or disease.
02:09We utilise those IV fluids for all sorts of species that come into the wildlife hospital
02:14but for koalas that are an endangered species, they rely on these life-saving fluids primarily.
02:21Ensuring the ongoing global shortage won't leave these animals out to dry at home.