The idea of the app struck Mehek, 25, after trying to help a distressed friend last year, who needed blood for her dog urgently. She reached out to her social circle to check if any of them had dogs with a matching blood type or if they knew anyone who did. “She did pretty much what anyone in such a situation does - you put the word out on social media in the hope that someone can reach out to you and you can then take the process forward. It was very stressful, and she told me about how there aren’t enough blood banks for dogs and the few that do exist don’t have good storage for blood when it’s required. At the same time, there was no platform for finding donors. That stayed with me and I thought, ‘that sucks’,” Mehek says.

The app feeds in information provided by dog owners about their canine’s breed, age, weight, gender, blood type and location

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Moved by this event, Mehek decided to create an app called Blood Hound that could connect dog owners to each other as and when required. “We named it Blood Hound since blood hounds are known to track things down. On the app, we ask dog owners for information regarding the canine’s age, weight or blood type, among other things,” she says. Her brother Zahaan, 21, who has studied software development, built and designed the application, which is so far available on Play Store.

As of now, Mehek states that there are several websites that facilitate blood donation for canines internationally but the only other app that she came across in India was Blood4Pet, made by scientists of the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (Tanuvas). “I downloaded it and tried looking for donors in Maharashtra but I couldn’t find any. So, I realised that there is a big need for this. The goal is to get dog owners here to get themselves registered on it or at least have it installed on their phones in case of any emergency,” she says.

While the pandemic may prove to be a deterrent for registrations, as the donation process involves venturing outside, the Ghadialis have managed to get 50 downloads in the past couple of weeks. Eventually, Mehek reveals that they hope to help other domestic animals get blood, too. “We wanted to do a pilot with dogs to structure the information we need to put out, and then we can replicate this for cats, guinea pigs, hamsters, and more.”

Log on to: Blood Hound on Google Play Store