Hematological Parameters from the Feline Blood Donor to the Blood Unit: What Changes Are to Be Expected?

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Feline blood donation requires sedation to allow for good blood collection, avoiding venous damage and unnecessary donor stress. In the present study, we describe the variation of hematological parameters in a population of healthy blood-donor cats that underwent the same sedation protocol, including medetomidine, alfaxalone, and butorphanol. Significant differences in hematological parameters were observed between unsedated and sedated cats; particularly, the mean red blood cell count, hemoglobin concentration, hematocrit value, mean corpuscular volume, and red blood cells distribution width were significantly lower in sedated cats than in conscious ones, thus confirming that sedation is a critical procedure in cats. No significant differences for the main hematological parameters were observed between sedated cats and feline blood units, suggesting that the dilution with the conservative–anticoagulant solution (ratio 1:7) exerts negligible effects on these parameters with respect to samples of sedated animals. ABSTRACT: Feline blood donation requires sedation to allow for good blood collection, avoiding venous damage and unnecessary donor stress. In the present study, we describe the variation of hematological parameters in a population of 74 healthy blood-donor cats that underwent the same sedation protocol, including medetomidine, alfaxalone, and butorphanol. Changes in hematological parameters were evaluated in blood samples collected from conscious cats (group A), sedated cats (group B), and feline whole-blood units (FBUs) (group C). Significant differences were observed between unsedated and sedated cats: the mean RBC count, HGB, HCT, and RDW were significantly lower in sedated cats than in conscious ones, with a difference of 17.95%, 18.42%, 28.21%, and 10.00%, respectively. In accordance with previously reported data, our results confirm that sedation is a critical procedure in cats that can affect most of the hematological parameters. The second finding of our study is that no significant differences for the main hematological parameters were observed between sedated cats and FBUs, thus suggesting that the dilution with the conservative–anticoagulant solution exert negligible effects on these parameters with respect to samples of sedated animals. This hematological change must be taken into consideration since such parameters are important to define the quality of FBUs.