It’s not common for us to perform a blood transfusion on an animal but sometimes it is necessary to save a life. It is a similar process in human medicine, and we need to be careful about matching blood types, particularly in cats but dogs have a huge advantage. This is that the first transfusion they get can come from any other healthy dog.
A recent case was that of a 6-year-old Collie who came in lethargic, pale and breathing rapidly. Her blood count was only 8% (normal is over 37%) so she was critically anaemic. Immune mediated Haemolytic Anaemia (IMHA) is a condition we dread; the immune system takes over the body and destroys its own red blood cells. Sadly, many of these cases don’t make it and it is absolutely heart breaking. If your dog is ‘just not right’, get it checked as these conditions can start very subtly as the body initially puts mechanisms in place to compensate for the anaemia. Blood from another dog saved this dog’s life.
Lucy Travers BVSc CertAVP MRCVS Highfields Vets