Veterinary Tissue Bank

10/10/2025

Arthritis is a very common disease in veterinary medicine, affecting up to 80% of senior dogs. But it’s not just older pets that suffer. A new study shows that 1 in 5 dogs between the ages of 8 months to 4 years are already showing early signs of arthritis, leading to pain and stiffness in later life. 💔

With around 85% of cases needing long term medical or surgical management, Veterinary Tissue Bank's cell and tissue services are there to support restoring comfort and mobility in pets.

🧬 Stem cell therapy - For larger joins, helping to reduce pain and promote joint function for improved comfort and mobility.
🦴 Bone grafts - For smaller or severely affected joints, offering surgical options to stabilise joints to ease discomfort.

If your dog is struggling with movement or showing early signs of joint pain no matter the age, talk to your vet about how Veterinary Tissue Bank can help them stay active and happy. 💙

02/10/2025

It’s National Walk Your Dog Week!
This week, from oct 1st to oct 7th we celebrate the daily walks that keep our pets healthy and happy. But for some dogs, arthritis and joint pain means even short strolls can be a struggle💔

At the Veterinary Tissue Bank, we know how hard this is, not just for pets, but for the families who love them. We don’t want your pets to miss out on the joy of a walk, which is why we offer advanced stem cell therapy to support joint health and mobility.

If your dog’s walks aren’t what they used to be and regular treatments haven’t been enough, talk to your vet today about whether stem cells could help your dog enjoy walks again.

Here’s to many more happy strolls together!

12/06/2025

The fundamental principle of Humeral Intracondylar Repair System (HIRS) is to apply the principles on non union management to HIF which are:

✅Debride the sclerotic bone to allow vascular access
✅Bone Grafting to encourage healing
✅Stable fixation with compression

HIRS was designed to optimise healing and minimise complications for cases of HIF and humeral condylar fractures. The screw is titanium alloy, self-tapping, headless, and self-compressing.

Demineralised Bone Matrix (DBM) is canine bone allograft which has osteoinductive (stimulates bone formation) and osteoconductive (a surface for which bone to grow on) properties.

DBM is prepared from cortical bone which contains osteoinductive growth factors (BMPs) including those relevant to bone healing. The presence of BMP can be demonstrated by implanting DBM in vivo and examined under microscope for new bone formation. The figure below shows the H&E stained DBM after 28 days of implantation in thigh muscle of an athymic mouse, showing new bone forming elements such as osteocytes, adipocytes, bone marrow, new osteons, etc.

➡Filling the void!

When using our HIRS screw, once you are happy that the implant is seated appropriately we can ‘fill the void’ surrounding the shaft of the HIRS screw with DBM to encourage healing.

Position the implant so a cutting flute lines up with the cranial edge of the hole.
You can then use a large gauge intravenous (IV) catheter (18G min) to apply the Demineralised Bone Matrix putty. Check the putty is flowing from the tip, once confirmed that there is no obstruction, we can advance the IV catheter down the cutting flute into the void that exists around the core of the screw. We can slowly and gradually back-fill the void while withdrawing from the void, until we have putty extruding from around the implant. We can then tighten up the screw until it bottoms out. At this point we can take 3-5 mins to allow the tissues to relax and give one final turn on the HIRs screw to tighten.

https://www.fusionimplants.com/product/demineralised-bone-matrix-0-5cc/

https://www.fusionimplants.com/product/hirs/

11/06/2025

Traumatic injury to the palmar carpal ligaments can occur when dogs fall from a height. This poor dog, Leo, mistakenly jumped over a wall on a bridge, only to find a 25' drop the other side. He landed with his front legs, and ruptured the palmar carpal ligaments on BOTH forelimbs.

Amazingly, within a couple of days, he was trying to take a few steps but his carpal joints were unstable and hyperextending.

Careful evaluation using stressed radiographs at Movement Referrals: Independent Veterinary Specialists, revealed that the ligament ruptures were at the level of the intercarpal joint (solid arrow). This provided the opportunity to preserve the antebrachiocarpal joint, where the vast majority of carpal movement occurs.

We performed bilateral partial carpal arthrodeses using plates designed for this surgery (Orthomed UK, Huddersfield, UK) in combination with Canine DBM nanopaste bone graft (Veterinary Tissue Bank, Chirk, UK).

It's early days, but Leo is recovering well and up on his feet. If all is well, Leo should be able to return to full function with a good range of motion in his carpal joints.

John Innes
Ben Walton
Brian Beale

25/12/2024

We like to thank the pet owners who generously donated their pets so that we can help many other pets who are in need of tissue transplants. We also like to thank the pet owners who registered their pets to become tissue donors. The registration helps to facilitate the donation process when the time comes.

We are grateful to the veterinary practices which referred tissue donors to us. Without the help of the veterinary staff the donations would not have happened and we truly appreciate their help and dedication.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

14/10/2024

A big thank you to all those who came to our exhibition stand over at the BVNA Congress in Telford. We loved meeting you all 💕
Please take the information back to your practice to increase the awareness of tissue donation with your clients.
If you need any help from us, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We hope to see you again next year at the BVNA 2025!

12/10/2024

Day 2 of the BVNA meting in Telford. If you are there today please don’t miss to call in and chat with us about veterinary tissue donation.

08/10/2024

We will be at the BVNA conference in Telford from 11 to13 Nov. Please come to stand C7 to learn about veterinary tissue donation and how you and your practice can offer this to your clients.

09/09/2024

We are pleased to be able to supply bone allografts to many veterinary specialists for use in orthopaedics and in dental surgery. For this, we are grateful to pet owners for donating tissues from their pets and equally we are thankful to veterinary staff, most of them are from first opinion practices, to facilitate the donation process. Tissue donation is not always an easy subject to talk about when the owner is in distress.

We like to thank the staff at Frame & Swift veterinary centre in Penrith, Cumbia, especially a young vet Harriet Semple who is a graduate of Liverpool vet school, for supporting us for many years. Harriet truly believes in tissue donation, and she has been referring tissue donors to us for many years. In appreciation of her dedication and efforts, and all the staff at F&S vets, we donated £300 to the local Eden Animal Rescue as her choice of charity.
Frame & Swift Limited

We are an independent and truly mixed practice based in Penrith, Cumbria with our own in-house full out-of-hours service. Our caring, friendly staff, on-call 24 hours a day, practice from our modern purpose built premises located on the outskirts of the town. Our patients benefit from excellent faci...

13/08/2024

A short while ago, we introduced you to a staff members spaniels who are all tissue donors.
Sadly, Gabby has since passed away and became the first to be a donor to help other dogs.

To help other pet owners make the decision on whether they would be able to take the step to donate their pet, Gabby’s owner has spoken about their experience of veterinary tissue donation;

“At The Grove we regularly use tissues from The Veterinary Tissue Bank during surgeries and I was aware that the only reason we are able to do so is due to the kindness of owners who donate their pets.
Some of my previous dogs, as well as some of my current dogs, have donated blood in the past, so I made the decision to register the whole pack as tissue donors. Once the spaniels had been registered, the Veterinary Tissue Bank contacted Fakenham to let them know and to make a note on each of the dogs' records that they are tissue donors.

As a family we knew the time to say goodbye to Gabby was nearing, and we made the decision to say goodbye one weekend, so that the whole family were able to say their goodbyes in their own way, and to allow Gabby one last walk on the beach with her family.

As we were saying goodbye over a weekend, someone from the admin team at Fakenham contacted The Veterinary Tissue Bank on the Friday to let them know a courier would be needed on the Monday following Gabby’s appointment.

Other than taking Gabby for her appointment at the Fakenham Hospital, as a family we didn’t have to doing anything else as everything was arranged by the Veterinary Tissue Bank, who kept in contact throughout the process to keep us informed of Gabby’s whereabouts.

Gabby was collected by a private courier at 9.30 on the Monday morning, and three days later we received a letter from the Veterinary Tissue Bank thanking us for our help in donating Gabby and that she would be able to help up to 60 dogs. A week later Gabby’s ashes were returned to us at home. We had Gabby back home less than two weeks after saying goodbye.

Even though we have had to say goodbye to Gabby, to know that she is able to help other people's pets get better gives us some comfort.”

To find out more about registering your dog or cat as a tissue donor, visit the Veterinary Tissue Bank www.vtbank.org

If you are struggling with the loss of your pet, you can find help and support from The Blue Cross www.bluecross.org.uk/pet-bereavement-and-pet-loss

09/08/2024

When pet owners make the generous decision to donate tissues from their beloved pets to Veterinary Tissue Bank, it can be a comfort to know that they are going on to help other pets in need.

Back in 2020, a springer spaniel "Dusty" was diagnosed with Humeral Intracondylar Fissure, a condition where the bone fails to fuse and can readily lead to fracture if not treated. Dusty was referred to veterinary specialists, Ben Walton and John Innes at ChesterGates in Chester. Dusty had already had one of her forelimbs amputated as a puppy, so they were worried that losing the other forelimb would mean the end of her quality of life.

Dusty was surgically treated using a donor bone from Veterinary Tissue Bank and a custom-made metal implant. The surgery was a success and Dusty returned home a few days later.

Her owners, Rob and Clodagh said "We are grateful to the owner of the donor pet for thinking of helping pets in need at such a difficult, traumatic time for them."

29/07/2024

We would like to thank Jacqueline for registering her dog, Archie, as a tissue donor.
Archie was registered back in 2019, but over time the donor tag had worn off. Jacqueline contacted us for a replacement and here's Archie proudly wearing his brand new donor tag.
Veterinary staff are often reluctant to raise the issue of tissue donation when owners are in distress, so seeing the donor tag can help to overcome this difficulty.
If you also need a new tag because the old one has worn off, please email us at info@vtbank.org.