Commonly used to treat haemostatic disorders, both inherited and acquired, FFP is a product Pet Blood Bank encourages all veterinary practices to keep in stock due to its long shelf life. From the date of donation, FFP can be stored for one year and then relabelled to Frozen Plasma (FP) and stored for a further four years.
Previously priced at £201, a unit of FFP is now only £115+VAT. This is possible thanks to the fantastic fundraising efforts of the charity’s supporters over the last few years.
Pet Blood Bank also has a wide range of educational resources available for vets to support their use of plasma. This includes a three part webinar series covering what plasma is, how to store and administer it, and what the indications for use are. The webinars provide 90 minutes of CPD and are available via the Pet Blood Bank website. Each practice where one member of staff completes the webinar can claim a free unit of Frozen Plasma from Pet Blood Bank.
Plasma is often a better choice than whole blood due to significant adverse reactions being rare. The long shelf life of FFP and subsequent FP also means the likelihood of having to discard a unit is very low.
FFP is also used to treat anticoagulant rodenticide toxicity, bleeding due to Angiostrongylus, Adder Bites, and Disseminated Intravascular Coagulopathy. Its wide variety of uses and new lower price makes it an excellent product for keeping on site at all times.
Wendy Barnett, Clinical Director at Pet Blood Bank UK, said, “We are so pleased to now be able to offer our FFP at this reduced price. We hope this will make FFP more accessible to vets. We would much rather plasma was out in the freezers of practices across the UK as opposed to being at the blood bank. FFP is an extremely valuable resource to have readily available when a patient urgently needs a transfusion. It really can be the difference between life and death.”
