Veterinary Apheresis Service UK

06/09/2025

Every VAS patient receives individual test results for PRP compared to baseline whole blood assessment at the time of collection, whether kit based or apheresis. Autologous prp should in our opinion always be tested as it is hugely variable in content. This allows tailored advice to be given concerning treatment regimes and injection volumes.

05/09/2025

This beautiful mare is Magma. She was exemplary today for an hour long procedure to collect 480ml prp in order to treat her bilateral stifle issues with a course of treatment alongside a carefully developed rehab plan. Well done Magma it was very lovely to meet you ❤️. Video in the comments of her platelet swirl - our first quality assessment prior to full analysis back at the lab.

04/09/2025

Today saw a combination of autologous prp techniques for our equine recipients. Autologous use of prp presents many considerations but we’ve found ways to make the most out of every situation. Pure prp collected by apheresis will continue to be our method of choice in dogs over 25kg and horses to make the most of both fresh pro and cost effective banked prp for repeated use, but if horses have a lower than normal pcv and dogs and cats are small we’re happy to use our Tropovet systems for neutrophil and red cell depleted, monocyte and lymphocyte rich prp. Contact us for more detail if you’re intrigued.

20/08/2025

Watch the video to see ultrasound guided prp administration at Zia pet hospital in New Mexico. Regenerative medicine in action. Getting injured dogs the anti inflammatory and healing properties of prp right to the heart of their injuries to optimise and speed healing and reduce pain.

17/08/2025

A learning opportunity in New Mexico. Repeat IV stem cell infusion in a dog that has had severe disc prolapse and spinal surgery. Great to learn new things and perhaps see into the future ….

16/08/2025

A différent weekend this weekend. Honored to be speaking at this conference in the US. Lecturing on past experience in blood banking and thén enjoying sharing some thoughts on veterinary apheresis and platelets alongside Anne Hale our founding consultant.

06/08/2025

After digesting a wide range of recently published literature looking at prp treatment of stifle OA in people, we’re recommending consideration of equine stifle compartment injections containing 5-10 billion platelets. With 4-6 compartments to treat in bilaterally affected horses - this truly brings apheresis as a method of harvesting prp for stifle treatment into a league of its own.
In the mean time - this picture from today’s equine prp harvest still leads to excitement when you can so easily see such amazing « swirl »

02/08/2025

This video revisits one of our lovely recent patients - Alfie a 4 year old cockapoo. Alfie has had a few lameness issues that have responded to standard rest and pain relief. However this last bout was very stubborn and severe so resulted in further work up. His x rays were clear, but he was diagnosed with inflammation likely to be due to degenerative joint disease (osteoarthritis) in both his left shoulder and elbow from joint taps. He failed to respond to rest and anti-inflammatoires and his owner was keen to investigate a more proactive approach to help his joints settle down above just increasing his need for additional medication at the age of 4. Alfie received intra articular injections of monocyte and lymphocyte rich but neutrophil poor prp with a concentration of 0.8billion platelets per ml. Within a few days he was walking much more comfortably on his lame limb and he has continued to improve. We’ll be working closely with his owner monitoring his progress and following a sensible exercise regime. VAS uk works hand in hand with Vets for Pets Washington to offer both tropovet prp for small dogs and in dogs >25kg apheresis prp treatments. Please feel free to contact the surgery should you want to explore these treatments for your dog.

31/07/2025

A nice summary of some of the current hot topics in human prp treatments that we’re quite passionate about at VAS.
Plateletpheresis produces what has been termed « pure prp » which is red and white cell free prp and our main use in nearing 200 vet patients has been for IA injections in both horses and dogs. Our tendon use has involved smaller volumes of high concentration prp.
It’s great to hear that this is potentially a favoured approach on the human side here.

Alberto J. Panero, DO (Sacramento, CA), discusses current topics related to platelet-rich plasma, including platelet concentration and dosing.

22/07/2025

So in amongst our regular updates on lameness cases that we are initially focussing on (tendon and joint damage) - did you know prp has a very wide range of additional uses. Some of these are dental extraction socket treatment to aid haemostasis and speed healing, topical treatment of severe corneal ulceration and both topical and injected wound treatment. Dazzle an 11 year old greyhound received prp into her dental extraction sites and at the same time, prp injected into the wound edges of a wide gash on her hind leg that she’d caused by having a bit too much fun zooming around. Within four days her wound that initially was 2cm wide and 5cm long had completely apposed. There is much interest in this area currently in speeding healing and reducing infection, and we can certainly report that that’s our experience.

19/06/2025

We've been quiet on social media, however there is lots of work behind the scenes at VAS currently. The start of the equine sporting season gives us chance to catch a breath on the equine side, but its been truly joyful to follow the season and see some past patients out back competing at the top of their game. It brings back the very reason that VAS was set up for after founder Jenny felt that there was no place to turn for a "course" of prp with known content, which she felt she wanted to access for her own event horse with a stifle injury. It takes a huge team effort to treat these horses of which we feel truly privileged to have been a part.
This has meant some extra time in small animal clinic and a focus on canines for a while. We've treated a wide variety of patients from apheresis treatment of racing greyhounds with tendon injuries to treatment of early onset elbow and shoulder djd in cockapoos via our ESTAR tropovet technology for smaller patients. All are doing well and we look forward to following their progress.
Then the most exciting update thanks to the support and interest from Emily Clarke, a researcher at Liverpool University after we met at BEVA last year, alongside the trust and generosity of some of our past patients has been planning the study and obtaining consent for surplus sample inclusion so we can truly look to put more detailed data into our service. We already record whole blood and prp platelet, white cell and red cell content, so every patient gets a bespoke result and recommendation for treatment volumes and regimes, however extracellular vesicles are of current interest in the regenerative medicine field and have been researched recently particularly in reference to preserved PRP and stem cell activity. Real data as to the EV content of autologous PRP is often not known as the PRP is used at the time, requires specialist testing and is not analysed. We intend to change that for our offering and very much look forward to putting these numbers into the developement of our service longer term, and bring to the forefront a true understandng of frozen prp content and its place in the biologics catalogue.

17/04/2025

Jessie ❤️