Inter-Species Blood Transfusion

You might have heard about the recent (August 2013) blood transfusion between a cat and a dog which took place in New Zealand.  This is the link to the story as reported by Sky news:  http://news.sky.com/story/1131354/dog-saves-cat-in-rare-blood-transfusion-op

The article begins:

“Macy the Labrador stepped in when Rory the ginger tom became ill after eating rat poison.

“Vet Kate Heller, of Tauranga in New Zealand, said the feeble feline was fading fast and needed an immediate transfusion to survive.

“She searched for a suitable donor cat but could not find one quickly enough.”

The story continues that the Labrador was used as a blood donor and, happily, the cat is doing fine.

What really got my interest were the last three paragraphs of the article:

“Interspecies transfusion, as acts like a dog giving a cat blood are called, has only been successfully carried out a handful of times.

“According to experts, cats do not have antibodies that reject dogs’ blood, so a transfusion may buy enough time for the cat to regenerate its own red blood cells.

“Only one transfusion can be done because a second dose of dog blood would be the death of the cat.”

I couldn’t help but think of the similarity of an Rh- woman giving birth to a Rh+ child.  The first time, there is no problem as there are no antibodies present.  But without Rhogam having been administered, there would be antibodies present during the second pregnancy.

Inter-species.