Tauranga Dog Donates Blood to Save Cat’s Life

A Tauranga cat has a dog to thank, after a local vet gave it a transfusion of canine blood in a gamble to save the feline’s life. Kim Edwards rushed her cat, Rory, to the local vets last Friday when he went limp after eating rat poison. Realising the cat needed an immediate transfusion, and that there wasn’t enough time to send a sample to the lab, vet Kate Heller decided to use dog blood to save the animal, knowing Rory would die instantly if she gave it the wrong type. She had never performed the incredibly rare procedure.

‘Inter-species blood transfusions are not common, nor are they recommended, ‘ Heller told The Bay of Plenty Times. 

The Telegraph reports that Edwards called her friend Michelle Whitmore, who volunteered her black Labrador, Macy, who was then rushed to the vets to act as the cat’s blood donor.

After starting the transfusion, Heller monitored Rory for an hour then went home to have some dinner, Fairfax reports. “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,” Heller said.

Not surprisingly, Edwards is now singing the praises of her local vet and says the cat appears to have fully recovered from ordeal. “The vets just went above and beyond. It’s incredible that it worked,” said Edwards. “Rory is back to normal – and just for the record we don’t have a cat that barks or fetches the paper!”