New Zealand vet saves cat using dog blood in a rare inter-species transfusion

A New Zealand vet has successfully saved a poisoned cat by administering blood from a dog in a rare inter-species transfusion.

Cat owner Kim Edwards was frantic last week when her ginger tom Rory went limp after eating rat poison and rushed the ailing cat to her local veterinary clinic at Tauranga in the North Island for help.

Vet Kate Heller said the feeble feline was fading fast and needed an immediate transfusion to survive, but there was not enough time to send a sample to the laboratory for testing to determine the cat’s blood type.

Instead, she decided to take a gamble and use dog’s blood to try to save the animal, knowing it would die instantly if she gave it the wrong type.

Ms Edwards called up her friend, Michelle Whitmore, who volunteered her black Labrador Macy as a doggie-blood donor in a last-ditch attempt to save Rory.

It was a procedure Dr Heller said she had never performed before and was very rare — via redwolf.newsvine.com