Sunday, February 14, 2010

Puppy's life saved by greyhound blood transfusion

A purebred six-week-old puppy in Australia owes her life to a blood transfusion from a gentle greyhound more than 15 times her size.

Cairns resident Sami Knoblock had a tearful reunion with her English Staffordshire terrier after their scary ordeal. Ms Knoblock said her dog, Buddy, was vomiting and could hardly lift her 1.6kg body to stand on.

She rushed her sick dog to Brinsmead Veterinary Surgery where Greencross principal surgeon Max Fargher found a hookworm infestation that had caused a massive haemorrhage.



With Buddy at death's door, Dr Fargher raced home to get his trusty pooch Hurley, a male, six-year-old 34kg greyhound.

Dr Fargher then performed a transfusion by transferring a "drop" of Hurley's blood - 120ml - to Buddy.

He said a young dog's first blood transfusion could be from any donor dog, but if it needed a second, it would have been a far trickier situation.

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