# Taking blood from a dog



## eternalstudent (Jul 22, 2010)

So I was all set to sign up for pet blood bank even sent of my registration. Becka meets all the criteria. 
However, I then find out that they take the blood from a central vein (neck), I can't help thinking that this is highly dangerous (out with of slipping if puppers moves and severing the major artery, or simply endocarditis.) compared to taking from a peripheral vein like the front leg (as they do in humans, ok we call it an arm but same difference)

For those of you in the know is this normal practice or do vets take blood normally from the peripheral veins.

Thanks


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

Everytime they have taken blood from one of my dogs, its always been from a lower front leg. I don't think I've ever seen them take blood from the body itself.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

They often take blood from my smaller dog's jugular. It's no big deal - the veins in her legs are very tiny, and the jugular has a big vein. They just tilt her head up and stick the needle in. 

Now, she's not a struggler so I don't know how that would work on a jumpy dog. But I would think it would be the same as with a leg - if they are trying to pull away, you can't get the needle in the leg, either.


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## Lisa_j (Apr 7, 2011)

I submitted blood in a study from my megaesophagus GSD and they drew from the neck. I believe when they need several vials the neck is a better choice, correct me if I am wrong. When i just have hw check done they draw peripherially in a leg.


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

We almost always take blood from the jugular at my clinic. Sometimes with some vets if it's in front of the client, the vet will take it from the front leg, or if the animal won't cooperate. But if you're trying to get larger amounts of blood out of the animal, the jugular is the best way to go.


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## chowder (Sep 7, 2008)

If we ever had to get more then a single tube of blood we always used the jugular. You just weren't able to get more then that out of most legs without collapsing the vein. It really never bothered the dog, but often times the vet would shave the neck and that bothered the owners a lot of the time (more then the actual blood draw!)


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

We also do jugular blood draws more often than not. The jugular vein is huge compared to the others so we can use a larger needle which allows us to draw blood faster and "cleaner" than using a small needle. What I mean by clean is that when blood is drawn through a small needle opening, more blood cells are damaged in the process compared to using a larger needle with a larger hole. So not only is your sample better, the animal doesn't have to sit there for a long time. 

Plus, we want to preserve at least the front leg veins for iv catheters. Typically when blood is drawn from a vein in the front leg, it is considered "blown" because a blood clot forms making it useless for an iv catheter. 

It is true that jugular blood draws can be dangerous for dogs that thrash about. In these cases usually we draw from a back leg because there is a better vein to draw from.


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## cprcheetah (Jul 14, 2010)

What they said  The jugular is the only vein we can hit on Zoey and she's so good about it she just stands there. Had a relief vet once try to get it out of her front leg which is miniscule and OMG Zoey was so mad, and the doc blew her vein so she had the huge bump there for a few days......I tried to tell her the only way to get blood out of her was the neck.


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