As early as 1818, human beings had undergone the first interpersonal blood transfusion, but for various reasons, this treatment plan was not promoted. It was not until the advent of anticoagulants in the 1920s and 1930s that blood transfusion medicine received rapid growth. develop.
Nowadays, human blood transfusion medicine has developed into a very advanced and perfect science, and blood transfusion therapy has not only been limited between people, but also happened to other animals.
In veterinary medicine, the most frequent blood transfusion therapy is pets. In many emergency and critically ill animals, veterinarians will arrange blood transfusion treatment for pets. Like humans, blood transfusions can save their lives.
However, pet blood transfusions are not as easy as humans, especially cats, because feline blood is more difficult to collect and store than canine blood transfusions, so blood banks for cat blood simply do not exist.
If some expensive pet cats, or some wealthy family pet cats need blood transfusion, then the only way is to draw blood from another cat on the spot (general cat blood storage is not more than 48 hours), and those who are ready to be on the spot Cats that “donate blood” are called blood cats.
There are some little-known industry chains about blood cats. Some people specially adopt abandoned pet cats or take stray cats as blood cats, and cooperate with pet hospitals to supply blood to those pet cats who are willing to pay.
When do cats need blood transfusions?
We know that vertebrate blood is basically red because it contains red blood cells, which can carry oxygen and carbon dioxide, and then circulate through the body with the push of the heart.
However, red blood cells can become deficient for a variety of reasons, a condition known as anemia.
Fewer red blood cells means less oxygen to the various organs and muscles in the body, so we feel tired and dizzy when we are anemic.
For us humans, the symptoms of anemia often attract our attention once they appear and get timely treatment, but pets cannot do this, and some pets often only attract the attention of their owners after severe anemia.
When pets with severe anemia are sent for treatment, blood transfusions are often needed first. The purpose is to provide extra red blood cells, which can temporarily stabilize the pet’s condition, and then the veterinarian will find the cause of the pet’s anemia and prescribe the right medicine.
For pet cats, most blood transfusion cases are severe anemia, and cats are also pets that are particularly prone to anemia.
Many people may have wondered, why do you have to look for a blood cat? Can’t you ask a friend’s pet cat for help?
Why are you looking for a blood cat?
Now more and more people are willing to pay for the treatment of their pets. We can find a lot of information about pet cats needing blood transfusion because of severe anemia by searching the Internet casually.
Some people post in groups, some people post in pet forums; some people seek help for free, and some people are willing to pay for nutrition or other expenses.
But in fact, the possibility that these distress messages can be helped is very low, because cats also have blood types, and there are three main types, namely A, B, and AB.
Like humans, people with different blood types will have rejection reactions, and cats are considered to have no “universal blood type”. Even if they are AB type, they can basically only receive AB type blood.
There is an interesting fact that most cats are actually blood type A – about 90%, and the second most is blood type B, so you will find that most of the time when you ask for help online are cats with blood type B, because this A rare blood type.
Many people don’t even know their own blood type, so let alone know the blood type of their pets. If they are willing to help, then he has to do a blood type test for his cat – under normal circumstances, it needs to pay 20 US dollars, He also has to spare a day to go to the pet hospital, which is another time cost.
It is a good thing to let your pets treat other pets. Many people may be willing, but due to various costs, they are really helpless, so most of the time they can only find blood cats.
The existence of the blood cat is also a good thing, after all, it can save more lives, but sometimes it becomes very inhuman to treat it as a business.
Blood cat dirty industry chain
Under normal circumstances, there are many requirements to draw blood for a cat. For example, the speed of blood drawing should not be too fast, which can observe the adverse reactions of cats during the blood drawing process.
The most important thing is not to draw too much blood – under normal circumstances, a single blood draw for cats over 5 kg is between 50ml and 60ml, and the red blood cells in the blood of the donor cat need to be more than 30% (less than 10%). will be judged as severe anemia).
However, those cats who are regarded as blood cats do not care about this. We can find some blood cats donating blood on the Internet, which can provide up to 180 ml at a time.
Under normal circumstances, the blood content of cats is 70 ml per 1 kg of body weight. If it is a 5 kg blood cat, more than half of the blood will be drawn.
If it is a human, losing one-third of the blood will cause shock due to insufficient oxygen supply to the brain, and losing half of the blood will immediately die. It is estimated that a cat that loses half of its blood will hardly survive.
But cat blood is very expensive. The lowest price is 1ml and 2 US dollars. Now the price of the online inquiry is up to 450 US dollars for 50 ml, and the unit price reaches 50 yuan per ml, and the most expensive even reaches 800 US dollars for 50 ml.
Therefore, breeders of blood cats can completely ignore the life and death of cats, as long as they can sell more blood.
In fact, in order to get more blood, these breeders will also make cats fat, and some people may feel that blood cats are doing well because of this, but it is only because the heavier the weight, the more blood.
Perhaps due to the high mortality rate of some blood cats after blood draws, these breeders will continue to publish information on adopting pets on the Internet. The general requirement is that they have been vaccinated. In fact, they are just to ensure that they are blood cats. Just be healthy.
Not only adoptions, but most of the time, they also mass breed cats, because they only want cat blood, so they don’t think about inbreeding at all.
Since many platforms block relevant transaction information about blood cats donating blood, the most difficult thing for these people is to find customers. However, some pet hospitals directly cooperate with these people, or directly raise blood cats by themselves.
Breeders are responsible for finding cats and raising cats, while pet hospitals provide customers. The entire industry chain forms a closed loop of interests. Those blood cats are locked in cages for a long time for the benefit of these people. Getting out of the cage means donating blood, even a donation. to death.
at last
In fact, there is no right or wrong in the existence of blood cats. Without such interests, it is estimated that more cats will lose their lives. The most important thing is that supervision must be in place, otherwise the industry chain will become very deformed.