Palou registers more than 2,600 dog and cat blood donors in Berlin

Palou, a free Berlin platform run by the non-profit Palou e.V., now lists 2,612 registered dog and cat blood donors for veterinary practices to search when pets need transfusions. The service is designed to help close a gap in Germany, where there is no central blood bank for animals.

Why it matters: - Germany has no central blood bank for dogs and cats, so veterinary practices often rely on their own donor lists when an animal needs a transfusion. - Palou gives practices a single place to search for nearby donor pets, which can matter in emergencies, after accidents, during surgery, with some cancers or after rat poisoning. - The platform is free for pet owners and veterinary practices.

What happened: - Palou now lists 1,505 dogs and 1,107 cats as registered blood donors, for a total of 2,612 animals. - The Berlin non-profit Palou e.V. runs the platform. - Pet owners and veterinary practices use the service at no cost.

The details: - The Small Animal Clinic at Freie Universität Berlin opened Germany's first clinic blood bank for pets in 1997. - That clinic blood bank collects about 40 litres of donor blood a year. - Stored blood lasts only a few weeks. - Cat blood is usually transfused fresh, which makes a nearby donor especially important in emergencies. - Germany had 25.7 million dogs and cats in 2025, including 10.0 million dogs and 15.7 million cats, according to IVH/ZZF. - Only a small share of those animals meet donor criteria, and only some are registered anywhere. - Palou says its system makes registered donors visible to any nearby practice that searches the platform. - The platform runs in a browser at app.palou.app, so users do not need to download an app.

Between the lines: - The platform is trying to solve a logistics problem more than a supply problem: matching the right donor to the right clinic fast enough when blood is needed. - The scale gap is clear. A country with millions of pets relies on a limited donor pool and a small amount of stored blood. - Palou’s model also lowers friction for participation by keeping registration free and handling the first contact between practices and owners.

What's next: - Pet owners can register a healthy dog or cat on the platform and wait for contact if a nearby practice needs blood. - Veterinary practices can keep signing up and search for donors by species, blood type, weight, age and radius. - Palou may also send urgent appeals on its social media channels if owners consent. - Supporters can fund the association through membership fees or donations.

The bottom line: - Palou is building a searchable donor network for pets in a market with no national animal blood bank, and the 2,612 registered animals show the model is starting to scale.