Hi Everyone, Sid here again.
Well it has been a busy month in my world, one thing after another. Oh no! What happened to poor Sid this time? I hear you asking. Well this time it wasn’t my fault. I was rushed into the surgery to give blood in order to save the life of another poor dog that had eaten some rat poison by mistake.
Young Ted had got himself into a right sorry state and was very sick by the time my Dad and his team set to work I can tell you. He was very weak and had passed blood in his motions, (never a good sign if you ask me.) Poor Ted, he was also breathing heavily. After a blood test it was revealed that he was unable to clot his blood and that the heavy breathing was likely to be due to bleeding into the lung cavities. He had some treatment, but still my mate Ted became weaker. So Super Dog Sid, as I like to call myself, stepped in and donated a unit of my full bodied red blood! That pepped young Ted up no end; by the end of the transfusion he was feeling much better.
He wasn’t out of the woods though, he’s still on treatment now, but hey a happy ending all thanks to me. The surgery has a few dogs on it’s books as prospective blood donors. Like humans dogs have different blood groups and if they have more than one transfusion the blood given needs to be matched against the patient. In order to be a regular blood donor a dog has to have several attributes, all of which yours truly possesses. He has to be large enough to have the blood to spare, very fit so that the blood taken can be quickly replaced and also a calm and relaxed disposition. Sight hounds, such as greyhounds or lurchers, have particularly high numbers of red blood cells and to top it all off, my blood group makes me a universal donor. A pretty useful guy to have around as i am sure you will all agree.I really am a real live action hero!
Bye for now.
Sid
MacArthur Barstow and Gibbs Veterinary Surgeons 