Dog blood saves cat in rare inter-species transfusion

Cats and dogs are traditionally considered arch rivals, but a poisoned feline has gained a fresh lease on life thanks to a rare inter-species transfusion of canine blood, reports PTI. In an extremely unusual case, a dog's blood was used to save the cat in the New Zealand town of Tau- ranga. The gamble to give a transfusion of Labrador's blood to the gravely sick cat paid of f with a quick recovery by the feline. It was realised that six-and-a-half-year-old ginger cat Rory needed a transfusion late on a Friday evening.

There was not enough time to find his blood type by sending a sample to a laboratory before it closed, Fairfax Media reported. Giving a cat just a millilitre of the wrong type of cat blood would kill it, vet Kate Heller said. It was suspected Rory, who had bled inter nally, had eaten a poisoned rat or got into someone's rat bait. "Rory was going to die before we were going to get his blood type," Heller said.

"He was really dying before our eyes." She talked to Rory's owners about the risks of giving the cat a blood transfusion from a dog and they decided to give it a go.

Cat-to-dog transfusions were given at times, although she had never done one before, Heller said. "There are some significant risks of doing what we did. He could have died because of it. He would have died without it," she said. Rory's owner Kim Edwards knew a friend with a Labrador, and the dog was rushed to the vets.

After starting the transfusion, Heller monitored Rory for an hour, then went home to have some dinner. "I came back to check him after about an hour, and he was sitting up eating and purring. He responded really quickly to the transfusion," she said.