A dog might be man's best friend, but a Tauranga Labrador
has made a bigger sacrifice for the arch enemy.
Macy the dog saved the life of Rory the cat by donating
blood. He's perfect now, but three weeks ago Rory urgently needed
blood after eating rat poison.
"He was dying. We didn't have time for the cat blood to
arrive or be matched," says Rory's owner, Kim Edwards.
It was Friday night and no labs were open to check his
blood type, let alone get supplies. So vet
Kate Heller sought advice and was told to try dog
blood.
"I hadn't heard about it or read about it. It's not in any
textbook," says Ms Heller.
Rory needed a donor fast. So Ms Edwards thought fast and
phoned a friend in her book club.
"[I had] never heard of anything like that before. I
thought she was joking," says Macy's owner, Michelle Whitemore.
But Rory desperately needed the 18-month-old Labrador.
Macy was rushed to the vet where she donated 120ml of blood, and
within an hour Rory the cat was saved.
"It was one of those situations that it was a
do-or-die. So, he would have died if we did nothing," says Ms
Heller.
It may sound wacky, but it's science. Cats don't have
antibodies that reject dogs' blood, so a transfusion may buy enough
time for the cat to regenerate its own red blood cells. But only
one transfusion can be done because a second dose of dog blood will
be the death of the cat.
"He is not out fetching the newspaper or peeing on power
poles or barking yet! He is just the normal cat that we have –
playful, friendly," says Ms Edwards.
