Abstract: Background – Plasma products are widely used in veterinary medicine, particularly to treat coagulopathies. However, most transfusion guidelines advise against using lipemic plasma, leading to the loss of valuable blood products. Objectives – To assess the prevalence of lipemic plasma in healthy canine blood donors, identify predisposing factors, including dietary links, and provide recommendations to reduce its occurrence. Animals – A total of 296 healthy canine blood donors were enrolled in a university blood bank and participated prospectively following owner-signed consent. Health was confirmed through physical examination and complete bloodwork including total T4. Methods – After successful blood collection and processing, fresh frozen plasma was assessed blindly by two operators using a turbidity/lipemic index chart (0 = clear to 4 = opaque with severe lipemia). Plasma graded 3–4 (lipemic) was compared to grades 0–2 (non-lipemic), and generalized linear models were used to identify risk factors for lipemic plasma. Results – The prevalence of lipemic plasma in the donor cohort was 11.8%. Key associated factors included timing of the last meal (3.64 ± 0.95 hours vs. 5.94 ± 0.63 hours, p=0.008), especially meals within 4 hours of collection (80.56% vs. 47.69%, p< 0.001, OR: 1.15), dietary fat content (46.8g/1000kcal ± 7.93 vs. 40.8g/1000kcal ± 1.09), feeding a raw diet (19.44% vs. 3.88%, p=0.001, OR: 1.37), and triglyceridemia (2.26mmol/L ± 0.36 vs. 0.91mmol/L ± 0.05, p< 0.001). Conclusions – To minimize blood product losses, pre-collection guidelines could include a 4-hour fasting period, particularly for dogs on raw diets, while avoiding fatty diets.
