EDMONTON -- A veterinarian clinic in Sherwood Park held a pop-up dog blood drive Monday, as demand for animal blood remains high.

Pulse Veterinarian Clinic partnered with the Canadian Animal Blood Bank to get dog owners to bring their pups in to help out other canines.

“There is a shortage due to COVID,“ said Jessica Foyle with the Canadian Animal Blood Bank.

“A lot of the colleges had to close down and a lot of the blood collections around Canada have come from NAIT, Red River College in Winnipeg and because those are shut down due to COVID a lot of those collections had to be put on pause,” she added.

Foyle says the pandemic also ushered in a rush of people looking to get dogs, which in turn has put even more pressure on the blood bank supply.

“With everything going on, a lot of owners are getting dogs which means that there are a lot more veterinary clinic visits and unfortunately emergency visits,” she said.

Foyle says usually between three to 15 clinics across the country a week wait for blood products to be sent to them.

“It can be anywhere from just a unit of universal blood, which is negative, to a unit of positive blood which is more common but right now a lot of clinics are just going dry without any blood products.”

Foyle is urging anyone with a pet that weighs more than 55 pounds, between the ages of one and eight and is even tempered to bring their pet in to give blood donating a try.