Dr Kate

Busy day for #6 being King of the Castle Alberta Sphynx and Lykoi Rescue SugarSphynx and Lykoi Canada

Thank you to Joanne Wegiel of The Cat House Inc for donating 20 honeysuckle baggies to our Sphynx crew! Those of you who have purchased them from me before know how much the cats love these! Alberta Sphynx and Lykoi Rescue

Everyone is settling in so well! There is a lot of upper respiratory disease, conjunctivitis and a few will need major dental work. Everyone is falling in love. Continued thanks to all who are donating to their care. Myself and some of my technicians will be donating our time to spay and neuter everyone in the coming week or so.

Is your kitty the magical unicorn that could save a life in the future?? Did you know that cat’s sometimes require blood transfusions? We maintain an active database of kitty blood donors and I am currently on the hunt for a very special kitty. Cats have 4 blood types: A, B, AB, and MiK - the most important are A and B and the latter two are exceptionally rare. The vast majority (99% in the USA) are type A and that is all we have in our local database. ... Unlike other mammals, cats produce something called alloantibodies which are antibodies which strongly attack red blood cells with markers not present in their own body. So cats with type B blood have very strong antibodies to type A blood and will have a strong, potentially fatal, rejection response if we try to give them type A blood. So we can typically give a type A kitty, type A blood with no problem. The big problem is when we have a type B kitty who needs blood. This has happened on rare occasion through the years and unfortunately lead to me losing a patient a few years ago. More recently, we had a type B patient who needed a blood transfusion but was able to go to Calgary where there are 2 (!) type B donors for the entire area. I was shocked to learn this after speaking with several speciality hospitals there. So I am endevouring to find a type B donor for these rare emergencies here in our Lethbridge area. So what are the criteria? 1. Breed: British shorthairs, Cornish and Devon Rex, Turkish Angora, and Vans all have an increased likelihood of having type B blood (over 30% in fact). Although any breed (even a mixed barn cat) could possibley have type B blood we want to narrow things down as much as possible 2. Indoor only and have good veterinary care 3. Be fairly calm although in this rare circumstance we could provide some sedation for blood donation 4. Be between 1 and 8 years old 5. Be at least 4 kg but ideally over 5 kg and not overweight Let me know if you have a kitty who fits this criteria and would like to see about how to get tested!

I’m always honored to help this fantastic group of people. looking forward to meeting all these sweethearts tomorrow!