Veterinarian’s Simple Question Inspires Wave of Donations of IV Fluids That Would Normally Be Thrown Away

A clever veterinarian is helping address a shortage of IV fluids for animal care by accepting donations of leftover fluids from blood banks.

Though hospital regulations in Australia and likely in most countries dictate that leftover intravenous fluid, also known as saline, should be discarded for sanitary standards, its use for animals had never been explored.

ABC News AU reports that Dr. Felicity Cole donates blood often, and sees how the saline used to rehydrate and replenish blood cells in donors is often not fully used by the time the procedure is finished.

“I knew the product [saline] was being used and a large amount of it was possibly spare or being discarded,” she said.

Her clinic in Newcastle has experienced shortages of saline in treating animals. It’s often used to help pets maintain blood volume while under anesthesia or during trauma operations. In July last year, Dr. Cole wrote to the team at Australia Red Cross Lifeblood to ask if it were possible to salvage that leftover saline for her clinic.

“It was such a great idea,” Lifeblood spokesperson Jemma Falkenmire said. “But there was certainly some work to do, from our end, to get approval to donate that saline.”

Using a method called heat-sealing, bags of saline can be conserved for future use with animals, and Lifeblood has now pioneered best practices for the procedure in case any other facilities want to do the same with leftover saline.

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The first box of saline arrived in August of last year, with the average bag providing a cat with 10-20 hours of fluid depending on the procedure and the cat’s condition.

Best of all, Lifeblood has made a real effort out of Dr. Cole’s simple request, and has now donated 5,000 bags of heat-sealed IV fluids to around 100 vet clinics across the nation of Australia.

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A veterinarian at the Australia Zoo told ABC that the saline allowed them in some cases to continue delivering life-saving treatment, including for koalas, an endangered species that “rely on these lifesaving fluids.”

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