One of the things we always think about with Fluffy is resources. Compared to most other dogs, he receives a lot of medical care - and relatively speaking a LOT of blood products. His recent illness sure made that amount go through the roof!
That said, Fluffy does "pay his own way." Because he was the inspiration behind Sun States (see http://www.sunstates.org/ for more info) he may have used up about 100 or 150 units of CRYO and a half-dozen units of red cells, but so far he's been responsible for the generation and dissemination of about 5,000 blood components! Way to go, Fluffy!
Sun States will be firing up our donor program in Tucson in the next few weeks. We do all the stuff the human blood banks do - test for infectious diseases, divide the blood into components, and perform typing. One donation can be divvied up into up to four different components - red blood cells, platelets, and plasma products (cryoprecipitate and cryo-poor plasma). That means one donation helps a lot more dogs than just Fluffy!
Of course, all our dogs are volunteers! Not so with every blood bank - watch out. Some of the larger so-called "animal blood banks" the Humane Societies for dumps and presses animals into service against their will. They live their lives in cages, being blood donors, and don't really get to do anything else. If they don't want to donate it doesn't matter - they are given sedation! Oh, and like all farms they use a vacuum pump to extract the blood faster (90 seconds for 500mL of blood) - Imagine how that would feel if you were the blood donor!
But they have gotten themselves exempted from Freedom of Information Act requests, so no one knows how many animals die from these procedures every year. They boast about "saving animals from euthanasia" but in reality they are running a blood farm with slave donors. Check out
Sun States does it differently (which is why they hate us so much and have worked for so many years to put us out of business). Our donors are volunteers! We form cooperative relationships with rescues sometimes, but we don't take blood from unwilling animals, we don't mandate terms of service (though we like repeat donors!), and we don't use sedation or vacuum pumps with dogs!
Not every dog wants to donate, and that's OK! You have to respect that. It's a gift.
Anyway, if you're in the Tucson area and you want to help a non-profit who wants to save the lives of Fluffy and a whole lot more dogs without exploiting animals be sure to drop us a line! You can contact us at rick@sunstates.org or larry@sunstates.org.
Larry
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Fluffy goes to rehab!
No, not Compass! Fluffy went to his first physical therapy appointment! He got to practice some new balance ball exercises, got rewarded with chicken, and was evaluated by Dr. Aaronson. When he gets his catheter out we will get him in the underwater treadmill. He had a great time and only barked at two other dogs!
Rick leaves Sunday for Florida. Anyone interested in helping move the blood bank stuff should drop him an e-mail or give him a call. He will need help loading up the truck. His friend Brian is doing the drive back with him. Fluffy and I will stay home with the rest of the gang. Wish us luck!
Rick leaves Sunday for Florida. Anyone interested in helping move the blood bank stuff should drop him an e-mail or give him a call. He will need help loading up the truck. His friend Brian is doing the drive back with him. Fluffy and I will stay home with the rest of the gang. Wish us luck!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Limited Resources and the Big Adventure
Fluffy's doing much better! He's eating well, the swelling in his left leg is slowly going down, and he's wanting to move around more. We're trying to avoid too much of that until he's fully healed, of course.
When the blood bank suspended operations last July (thanks to a bad economy - you can't run a business that lives and dies by delivery when gas is $4.50/gallon) we knew we were on borrowed time. We had spun enough cryoprecipitate to last Fluffy through July, had a bunch of FFP in storage (which is good for up to 1 year at -20 according to US standards), and should have been able to hold out for a good long time if need be. We had half the stuff in Florida, and half was shipped to Arizona. We bought an extra freezer and it was FULL!
Well, since Fluffy's injury I am now looking at the bottom of that freezer. Getting a severe hemophiliac through neurosurgery requires a lot of cryo! Add to that he is now a wobbly 50-lb. toddler learning to walk again who bruises when he bumps into things and ... well, you get the idea.
Of course, in the last few months much of our cryo has 'expired' as well. I put that in quotes for a couple of reasons. The expiration dates for cryo and FFP are based upon human data for blood stored at -20. There's some evidence from Europe that blood stored at -30 (we store at -30) will be good for up to three years. The problem is, of course, that the factor that Fluffy needs - Factor VIII - is one of the most fragile of the factors.
As it stands, we have about 40 more unexpired units left, plus 30 or so more 'expired' units (stored at -30). Normally, Fluffy goes through 2 units/month - doesn't sound so bad, right? Well, the problem is is that we're going through it a lot faster right now. Hopefully that's temporary - a lot hinges on his continued progress and learning to walk again.
So we're somewhere between a few weeks (worst case given the plasma we have) and a few months (given the time we have left on the cartons till expiration).
Rick is going to head out to Florida this week and get our centrifuge, and get it out west. Then we're going to scramble to find some donors here - we have about 10 potential donors to start, but we don't know how many will be good donors, how many will pass infectious disease testing, etc. We *DO* know this is pretty much Fluffy's only option at this point.
Of course, we'd been scheduled to do this for months. We had booked time in January to move the blood bank stuff here, but Fluffy's illness sort of messed everything up. His sharp increase in plasma consumption has made things dicey, too - now we're suddenly on a much stricter timetable.
Rick probably leaves sometime tomorrow, after our plasma shipment arrives from Fort Lauderdale. I'm having it shipped in two parts in case something bad happens to part of it. Rick will fly out, try to find someone to help him move the centrifuge (it's heavy, yikes!), and get it to the person we bought it from, who will service it and get it ready for the journey westward. Then Rick is throwing everything on a truck and driving it out here. My job during that time is to keep an eye on Fluffy, not get fired from MY job, and get enough of the garage cleared out we've got room for everything.
If anyone on either end wants to volunteer some help that would be great. We need mover types in Florida, box-juggler or dog-watcher types in Arizona, and enough luck that we can pull this off.
When the blood bank suspended operations last July (thanks to a bad economy - you can't run a business that lives and dies by delivery when gas is $4.50/gallon) we knew we were on borrowed time. We had spun enough cryoprecipitate to last Fluffy through July, had a bunch of FFP in storage (which is good for up to 1 year at -20 according to US standards), and should have been able to hold out for a good long time if need be. We had half the stuff in Florida, and half was shipped to Arizona. We bought an extra freezer and it was FULL!
Well, since Fluffy's injury I am now looking at the bottom of that freezer. Getting a severe hemophiliac through neurosurgery requires a lot of cryo! Add to that he is now a wobbly 50-lb. toddler learning to walk again who bruises when he bumps into things and ... well, you get the idea.
Of course, in the last few months much of our cryo has 'expired' as well. I put that in quotes for a couple of reasons. The expiration dates for cryo and FFP are based upon human data for blood stored at -20. There's some evidence from Europe that blood stored at -30 (we store at -30) will be good for up to three years. The problem is, of course, that the factor that Fluffy needs - Factor VIII - is one of the most fragile of the factors.
As it stands, we have about 40 more unexpired units left, plus 30 or so more 'expired' units (stored at -30). Normally, Fluffy goes through 2 units/month - doesn't sound so bad, right? Well, the problem is is that we're going through it a lot faster right now. Hopefully that's temporary - a lot hinges on his continued progress and learning to walk again.
So we're somewhere between a few weeks (worst case given the plasma we have) and a few months (given the time we have left on the cartons till expiration).
Rick is going to head out to Florida this week and get our centrifuge, and get it out west. Then we're going to scramble to find some donors here - we have about 10 potential donors to start, but we don't know how many will be good donors, how many will pass infectious disease testing, etc. We *DO* know this is pretty much Fluffy's only option at this point.
Of course, we'd been scheduled to do this for months. We had booked time in January to move the blood bank stuff here, but Fluffy's illness sort of messed everything up. His sharp increase in plasma consumption has made things dicey, too - now we're suddenly on a much stricter timetable.
Rick probably leaves sometime tomorrow, after our plasma shipment arrives from Fort Lauderdale. I'm having it shipped in two parts in case something bad happens to part of it. Rick will fly out, try to find someone to help him move the centrifuge (it's heavy, yikes!), and get it to the person we bought it from, who will service it and get it ready for the journey westward. Then Rick is throwing everything on a truck and driving it out here. My job during that time is to keep an eye on Fluffy, not get fired from MY job, and get enough of the garage cleared out we've got room for everything.
If anyone on either end wants to volunteer some help that would be great. We need mover types in Florida, box-juggler or dog-watcher types in Arizona, and enough luck that we can pull this off.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Fluffy's 7th Birthday!
Let's not let Fluffy's most recent hiccups eclipse the fact that today Fluffy is 7 years old! We're so excited for him!
Look at that smile! This was taken a little earlier this morning, when we visited him in the hospital, shortly before he was discharged.
He's very happy to be home. He's snoozing in his cage.
We're ordering bubble wrap in bulk.
Back from the Hospital
Fluffy was in again - he had a bleed into his back left leg. It started sometime between 2 and 3:30 AM. He was relatively normal when I took him out at 2 AM, but he was very restless, and when I went to take him out again at 3 AM it looked like he was smuggling a Virginia Ham!
We transfused him two units, and I debated (and decided ultimately) to take him in again. Same drill - nothing we don't do at home except for monitoring. Cost this one 48-hour stay: $3,142.
Today is Fluffy's 7th birthday! He's made it this far.
We've used up all but about a dozen units of FFP/cryo, down from almost 70 that I had in the house before this started (he usually goes through 2 units every 4-6 weeks). We've still got plasma in Florida which we're desperately trying to get shipped here.
If anyone has any good ideas for fund-raisers, or who knows a reasonable Tucson vet who might be willing to do some pro bono work that would be awesome. We can't afford any more hospitalizations.
Eventually I'll post the full story of what happened. It's a long and sad tale.
We're worried about three things: money, plasma, and veins. We are running low on all three at the same time.
Does anyone have any ideas about what we can do for a fund-raiser? We're working on bringing the blood bank equipment here, and we've already pretty much used up the home equity loan.
It would suck if we got him through all this just to run out of money or plasma.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Welcome to my-dog-fluffy!
Hi, all,
This blog is to update everyone on Fluffy's status as he recovers from his injury!
For those of you who don't know Fluffy, he's a 7-year-old Boxer/Pit mix with severe Hemophilia A. Up until December 24, 2007, his life was pretty normal (well, except for his regular transfusions of cryoprecipitate).
On December 24, 2007, Fluffy had a severe bleed into his spinal column that left him paralyzed in the back legs. He's had surgery to relieve the pressure from the clot, and now he's recovering. He's gained back some movement and feeling in his back legs, and he's slowly learning how to stand and walk again.
Fluffy is the most courageous dog I know (braver than most people). His spirit is incredible. We love him more than anything, and we'll be keeping you updated here.
This blog is to update everyone on Fluffy's status as he recovers from his injury!
For those of you who don't know Fluffy, he's a 7-year-old Boxer/Pit mix with severe Hemophilia A. Up until December 24, 2007, his life was pretty normal (well, except for his regular transfusions of cryoprecipitate).
On December 24, 2007, Fluffy had a severe bleed into his spinal column that left him paralyzed in the back legs. He's had surgery to relieve the pressure from the clot, and now he's recovering. He's gained back some movement and feeling in his back legs, and he's slowly learning how to stand and walk again.
Fluffy is the most courageous dog I know (braver than most people). His spirit is incredible. We love him more than anything, and we'll be keeping you updated here.
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