Austin Business Journal Article Features The Pet Blood Bank

Barking up a new tree
Veterinary supply company forms blood bank for pets
Colin Pope
Austin Business Journal Staff

Mark Ziller, co-founder and president of TW Medical Veterinary Supply in Lago Vista, kept hearing the same thing from many of his clients: They need blood.

TW Medical stocks more than 5,000 veterinarian products and ships them out daily to veterinary clinics, universities, research labs, zoos and the armed forces. But storing and transporting blood for transfusions has been unrealistic.

This month, however, it is a reality. Ziller and TW Medical co-founder Genae Girard have launched a company called The Pet Blood Bank Inc. It's only the fifth blood bank in the country that caters to dogs and cats, Ziller says, so the company has the chance to quickly grab market share and set industry standards.

"Transfusions for pets have really grown in the last 10 years," Ziller says. "There are thousands performed each year, but there is a severe shortage [of blood]. Our goal is to be the largest pet blood bank two years from now."

The number of pet surgeries and the demand for transfusions is undeniably growing, but there isn't any data on the subject, according to the Schaumburg, Ill.-based American Veterinary Medical Association.

"Vet medicine has become very specialized," says Chris Copeland, general counsel for the Austin-based Texas Veterinary Medical Association. "It mirrors human medicine. Just about anything that can be done in human medicine can be done in veterinary medicine."
Private veterinarians often rely on their own dogs or cats as blood donors when emergencies arise, or refer to an on-call list of pet blood donors, says Dr. Maureen McMichael, a veterinarian specializing in emergency and critical care at Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Ziller says those who want blood or plasma from other pet blood banks -- which usually serve only patients in their region -- can wait as long as four months for a shipment.
Girard and Ziller, who started TW Medical in 1994, have raised about $250,000 from investors to give life to The Pet Blood Bank.

The hope is to produce a monthly supply of about 600 units of blood by this summer, Ziller says. Industry experts say a unit of pet blood can cost $175 to $500.

The Pet Blood Bank will supply the vet industry with a much-needed product, but another goal is to bring new standards to the industry, Ziller says. The company has joined the American Association of Blood Banks and intends to use state-of-the-art equipment and blood screening processes.

"We're trying to use the same standards as the human industry," he says. "Some pet blood banks use residential refrigerators, for instance, to store product. We all love dogs and cats, so we really want to bring some higher standards to the industry."

The Pet Blood Bank's founders already have a strong position in the vet industry. TW Medical Veterinary Supply racked up sales of more than $12 million last year, Ziller says. The company, which has 16,000 square feet of office and warehouse space in the Austin suburb of Lago Vista, employs 23.

To start, The Pet Blood Bank is leasing about 2,000 square feet in the same building and is expected to employ about eight people as production increases this year. Ziller says the company is converting a new RV into an animal bloodmobile.