When a dog in Chennai needs blood, the hospital treating them is your first call. Blood has to be typed or cross-matched and the donor has to be screened, so a bag or a dog offered by a kind stranger is only useful once a veterinary team says it is safe for this patient.

Chennai has something most cities don't: the government's Madras Veterinary College Teaching Hospital in Vepery has an animal blood bank, and its casualty runs 24 hours. Two private clinics list transfusions too. None of them says what is in stock, so the hospital call still comes first.

If your dog needs blood now

Ask the hospital four questions, then look for a donor that fits what the vet asked for.

Call the hospital treating your dog and ask:

  1. Does my dog need whole blood, packed red cells or plasma?
  2. Can you transfuse here, and have you typed or cross-matched my dog?
  3. Do you have blood or registered donors available now?
  4. If not, should we go to the veterinary college in Vepery?

If the hospital needs a donor, ask your apartment group, your dog-walking friends and local dog groups for a dog that fits what the vet said. Most requests are for a healthy, vaccinated dog between one and eight years old, and the bigger the better: a Labrador, a German Shepherd, a Golden Retriever or a large Indie.

Keep the hospital as the meeting point. Don't arrange a private collection, don't move blood between homes, and don't post your home address or your dog's medical records in public groups.

Who to call in Chennai

A government teaching hospital with a blood bank and a 24-hour casualty, and two private clinics by day.

  • Madras Veterinary College Teaching Hospital in Vepery is run by the state veterinary university, TANUVAS, which lists an animal blood bank among the hospital's units. Out-patient hours are 8 am to 1 pm on weekdays, and 8 am to 11.30 am on weekends and government holidays. Outside those hours, the college runs 24-hour clinical care through its casualty.
  • SaiSha Pet Speciality Hospital in Anna Nagar lists transfusion medicine and blood transfusion among its services. Its listed hours are 10 am to 9 pm.
  • MASS Pet Clinic in Padi lists blood transfusion among the services it offers. Its listed hours are 7 am to 9 pm.

Two chains list transfusions without naming a branch, and neither is a night option here. SKS Veterinary Hospital has hospitals in Abiramapuram, Valasaravakkam, Chromepet and Akkarai, and its Abiramapuram hospital opens 9 am to 9 pm. Vetic has clinics in Adyar, Anna Nagar and Porur, all open 10 am to 8 pm. Phone the branch and ask before you count on it.

At night, that leaves the veterinary college's casualty and the hospital already treating your dog. Our 24-hour vets in Chennai guide lists who else is open.

Before you offer a donor dog

Use the national rules as a starting point. The hospital makes the final decision.

India's 2025 animal blood-transfusion guidelines say a canine donor should be one to eight years old, clinically healthy, calm, vaccinated against major infections including rabies, regularly dewormed, and free of tick-borne disease. A female donor must not be pregnant or recently lactating. The document gives different minimum weights for small, medium and large breeds, so a forwarded "25 kg minimum" message is not a national rule.

The same guidelines require a health exam, medical-history review and blood screening before donation. They give 15 to 20 ml per kg as the safe collection range and at least one to two hours of observation afterwards. Compatibility testing is a veterinary decision: the document notes that cross-matching is not normally required before a dog's first transfusion, but recommends it after a previous transfusion. Let the treating vet decide what this patient needs.

Common questions

Quick answers to what people ask most.

Is there a dog blood bank in Chennai?

Yes. TANUVAS lists an animal blood bank at the Madras Veterinary College Teaching Hospital in Vepery, and the college's casualty runs 24 hours. It doesn't say what it holds in stock, so ring the hospital on +91 44 2538 1366 first.