PBBuk visits the Beastly Beasts!

Last month, Chris Yates who runs Beastly Beasts, an organisation which works to promote awareness of greyhounds as pets and raise funds for greyhound rescues and charities, invited PBBuk to his home where his seven "beasts" happily took part in a donation session.

The Beastly Beasts started off as the Beastly Boys back in 1994, when the first "beast", Phelan, a two year old mongrel from the local pound arrived, followed by two bigger beasts, Beamish and Murphy, both wolfhounds.  The boys were then joined by Izzy, the first girl beast in 2004 and the group became the Beastly Beasts!

This was the first time PBBuk visited the Beastly Beasts at home  - previously we have been to White Lodge Kennels on two occasions and the vets at Wellingborough and Corby where some of the dogs had donated.

Meet the Beasts!

Kai is a tan lurcher adopted from Wood Green in July 2003; he’s now about six and half. He’s made five donations and when donating tends to fall asleep on the table each time!

Monty is a black greyhound who came from White Lodge in Kirby Bellars the week before Christmas 2004. He was rescued from Ireland one day away from being destroyed because he wasn’t considered good enough to race. He’s now about five years old. Monty has donated three times.

Jack is a brindle greyhound aged about nine years. He was our first failed foster; he came to us for a few weeks in March 2005 and is still here. Jack has done four donations.

Troy is a white greyhound who will be nine next month. Troy is not the brightest of beasts according to Chris, but is very loving and will lean on anyone that he can get close too. Troy has made five donations.

Lucy is the smallest of The Beastly Beasts. A brindle greyhound, she was nine in April. She might be small but she has a big personality. She has made five donations.

Mack is a black and white greyhound aged seven and half.  Mack came to us from Grandma Squiggs; having nursed him back to health he was proving a bit strong while out on walks - the price for doing a good job!

Rosie is a Great Dane X (I think with greyhound). She’s just over six years old. She came to us because she was about to be put to sleep for being aggressive to other dogs – she lives with six others quite happily. Rosie has made three donations.

For more information about Beastly Beasts and to find out how you can help raise funds for greyhound rescues and charities, please click here

Pictured from left to right, The Beastly Beasts are: Kai, Monty, Jack, Troy, Lucy, Rosie and Mack.

Cheltenham Clinic's fun events raise funds for PBBuk!

The Woodlands Veterinary Clinic in Cheltenham held an open day and a masked ball back in May to raise money for PBBuk.  We were delighted to hear this week that both events raised a grand total of £1700 for PBBuk and would like to thank all the clinic staff, especially Pip Millard, Practice Manager for their continued support.

PBBuk looks forward to visiting the practice again on the 3rd of  August when we will be holding a blood collection session.

A big thank you to the clinic for all their efforts in supporting PBBuk!

Model donor!

We were recently contacted by Jill Campey from Wakefield with the news that her dog Cassie, one of our donors, not only won the "Best Dog" category in a local competition in Bridlington but will also be appearing in the RSPCA's calendar for next year!

PBBuk Out and About!

We're delighted to announce that Darlington Vets 4 Pets will having a fun day on Sunday 17th August from 12-3pm with all profits going to PBBuk. 

PBBuk will be going along to the fun day to raise awareness of the work of the charity so if you would like to find out more about what we do, or register your dog to donate, pop down and chat to us between 12 - 3 to Vets 4 Pets at 199 Grange Road Darlington, DL1 5NT.

Bull Terrier Cross Saved by PBBuk Donors

Ali Spackman, an 8 ½ year old female staffordshire bull terrier cross received two transfusions of PBBuk red blood cells during her week long treatment at Vets Now Middlesbrough and their hosting clinic Bridge veterinary group in earlier in June.

Ali had very severe and acute onset anaemia caused by her own immune system attacking her red cells, which is a disease process called haemolytic anaemia. She had the transfusions on day 3 and day 5 of her hospitalised treatment when her anaemia became life threatening and she was very weak.

At the same time her vets battled to try and stop her immune system attacking her own cells with strong immunosuppressive drugs. A week into treatment she started to respond to the drug treatment. There is no doubt that without the red cell transfusions that came from two donor dogs she would not have survived. Immune mediated haemolytic anaemia is not uncommon and can affect many dogs, of all ages. There are some breeds that are more susceptible to the condition such as cocker and springer spaniels, lhaso apso’s and old english sheepdogs.

Before PBBuk, if needed, transfusions were often difficult to organise and these patients could develop a need for them very acutely. As this condition on average takes 2 transfusions and sometimes many more to manage successfully the availablility of PBBuk red blood cell products will make a massive difference to the outcome of patients with this disease.

We look forward to introducing you to the two donors who saved Ali's life,  Pippin Brett and Sophie Body, in the next edition of the PBBuk enewsletter!

Blood donation Stateside!

Jenny Walton from PBBuk recently travelled to Michigan in the US to look at how blood donation works stateside.

Jenny spent some time with Dr Anne Hale, PBBuk’s external veterinary advisor at her blood bank, and also at the blood bank and ICU at Michigan state university.  She attended blood collection sessions for both dogs and cats, and got a chance at some hands on lab work experience at Midwest’s immunohaematology laboratory that is the only laboratory in the world at this time to run extensive typing and compatibility work.



Dr Hale runs the only multi species animal blood bank in the USA. There are a lot of exciting developments underway that will lead to even more lives being saved in the long term. There is also long term ongoing work into the use of transfusions in dogs and cats so we continue to understand more and more about transfusion medicine.

We hope to continue to develop our relationships especially with Dr Hale and her team but also with all of our USA colleagues who have been blood banking pet blood for more than 20 years to ensure that we can bring the latest knowledge and techniques into the UK.

(Pictured; Dr Hale and Jenny on a "surrey" ride!

Witham dog saved thanks to PBBuk and Vets Now Ambulance!

The life of a critically ill Witham dog was saved thanks to the new Vets Now Ambulance in Colchester which was on stand by to rush blood products supplied by PBBuk to the Vets Now clinic in Witham.

Missy Wyatt, a two year old Dalmation, was brought to the clinic on the morning of 22 June after her owners, Mr and Mrs Wyatt of Tollesbury had spent a long night of worry about her deteriorating condition. On arrival, Missy was lethargic, wobbly on her legs, her urine was dark, she had vomited and her owner’s were concerned that she just wasn’t herself.

She was admitted by the duty vet, Maitane Bustinby for x-rays, bloods and IV fluids and was started on steroids. The team monitored her blood count throughout the day; however, when the nightshift Vet, Lyndall Grant took over, Missy’s condition had worsened and a possible blood transfusion was discussed.

Not only was Missy able to receive the life saving transfusion with the products supplied by PBBuk, the blood used to save Missy’s life was transferred quickly to the practice using the Vets Now Ambulance service in Colchester which was just launched last June.

The Vets Now Ambulance picked the blood up from the Vets Now Colchester clinic and took this straight to the Witham clinic, enabling the team to carry out the necessary transfusion. At around 3am, Missy’s condition began to improve and the transfusion was stopped.

Missy was transferred back to her daytime vet at Clarendon House the next day and came back the Vets Now clinic for the next three nights for further monitoring. By the Thursday morning, Missy was much brighter and alert and she was discharged to return home for some rest and recuperation!

Speaking about the Vets Now services which worked together to save Missy’s life, her owners, Mr and Mrs Wyatt commented; “The all round emergency service which Vets Now provides with its emergency clinics, ambulance service and Pet Blood Bank UK products is quite amazing and we had no idea that there was a system like this in place. Without this unique service, Missy’s life may not have been saved and we were amazed at how quickly the different parts of the Vets Now service came together to give Missy the treatment she needed. The dedication, skill and expertise of the Vets Now team at Witham was truly remarkable and we are grateful to them for saving our dog’s life. Our children are delighted to have Missy back home again!”
 

New website for pet owners!

We thought we would share details of a new pet owners website which we came across - www.petstreet.co.uk

The website has an online pet owner community which you can join and meet pets, other owners, create pet profiles, share information, pictures and videos. 

There's plenty of information about pet events, factsheets and even a 'Pet Idol' competition which you can enter your pet into.

PBBuk will be joining petstreet over the next few weeks so watch out for our new page on the site with all the latest info from PBBuk!

PBBuk Out and About!

PBBuk will be busy out and about spreading the message about the charity and attending a variety of talks, events and blood collection sessions over the coming weeks.  Please see diary below for our list of upcoming events:

20th July, 12.30-4.30pm
West Farm Kennels Ponteland
RSPCA Dog Show

26th and 27th July, 10-5pm
Shugborough Hall Staffordshire
Pets and People Show

2nd and 3rd August, 10-5pm
Dalemain House Penrith Cumbria
Pets and People Show

Blood Collection Sessions

Sunday 20th July
St Leonards Veterinary Centre
134-136 Osmaston Road
Derby
Derbyshire
DE1 2RF


Saturday 26th July
Forest Vets
Gregory Boulevard
Nottingham
NG7 6BG

Sunday 27th July
Ashfield House Veterinary Hospital Limited
( Ashfield House )
142 Derby Road
Long Eaton
Nottingham
Nottinghamshire
NG10 4ER


Tuesday 29th July
Mansfield Vets 4 Pets
36 Clipstone Road West
Forest Town
Mansfield
NG19 0BU

Sunday 3rd August
Woodlands Vets
Salisbury Avenue
Warden Hill
Cheltenham
GL51 3GA


Thursday 7th August
Telford Pets Choice
Unit E3, Stafford Park 15
Telford TF3 3BB

Sunday 10th August
Monnow Bridge Vet Surgery
2 Drybridge St
Monmouth
Gwent
NP25 5AD