02/17/2007: "Transfusion Medicine :)"

Hey Everybody! Sawyer here, and boy have I ever seen it all now. Big excitement tonight at the Creek. They FINALLY let me out of my room at the end of the day. I was rather miffed I can tell you. Anywho, where was I. Oh, yes. So I see the Lap and #2 scurrying around on some sort of mission. They were collecting all sorts of strange things and muttering something about blood donations. Well, that worried me at first, because the containers they were pulling out were awful big. I mean, I’m a Maine Coon and all but those containers looked like they could hold all the blood inside me and then some. It turns out they were going to collect blood for a transfusion for a dog, and they assured me that cat blood wouldn’t work. Whew!

So the victim, err donor, was a greyhound belonging Stephanie (one of my crew). Apparently greyhounds make good donor dogs because they tend to have more red blood cells than other types of dogs. They assure me this is natural, and not some sort of blood doping like in certain human sports! Well, Gracie the greyhound had been all excited about the car ride until it ended up at Hill Creek. However, despite her disappointment, she was a very willing donor. By willing, I mean with her mom and another person holding her, she allowed the vampires to suck her blood. I’m not sure I would have been so cooperative. The Lap first checked Gracie’s PCV (a measure of her red blood cells) to make sure she had enough to spare. Boy did she!! They were all excited by her PCV. Then they shaved a spot on her neck and applied a gel to numb the area. Good thing, too, ‘cause I saw the size of the needle they used. Yipes!!! Once the skin was numb, they scrubbed it really well and then put the needle in her big vein in her neck. Gracie was very stoic for it all, and everyone told her what a good girl she was being. They collected about 500 cc from her into special containers. I of course supervised the entire process, despite being yelled at more than once from certain parties. Apparently some felt that I might try to interfere with the process. As if!! OK, I admit that would’ve been really funny.

So once they were done Gracie and Stephanie left to get Gracie a nice thank-you treat. Did anyone give me thanks for my amazing supervision? NOT! I amused myself by playing with the discarded top to one of the containers.

Sawyer

PS-in case you were wondering why they did all this craziness (I sure was!), it was to have blood on hand for a dog with hemangiosarcoma. That’s a cancer of the blood vessels. This dog had a tumor on his spleen, and it started bleeding into his belly. When that happens, they can go into shock and even die from the blood loss (even though the blood is still technically in them). The doctors spent the day trying to get the spleen to stop bleeding. Once it stops, they can give the dog a transfusion to help him feel better until his body can reabsorb the blood he lost into his belly.