A 10 year old Cocker Spaniel had to be rushed to an animal hospital where he was saved by a blood transfusion. Julie Wright, of Calverton, had taken her dog Harvey to their local vet after he suddenly became very lethargic, was passing dark stools and had bruising on the skin of his abdomen.
Julie said: “Harvey rapidly went downhill the previous evening, so we took him to our local practice, Minster Vets, who diagnosed the severity of illness, what was required to stabilise him and organised for him to be transferred to Paragon. We were in shock at the time as we knew something wasn’t right but we had no idea how critical he was."
The family took Harvey to Linnaeus-owned Paragon Veterinary Referrals in Wakefield, where the hospital performed its very first platelet concentrate transfusion with support from Pet Blood Bank, a nationwide blood service charity for pets. It was found that Harvey had moderate anaemia and severe thrombocytopenia as he had developed a condition in which the immune system attacks and destroys the platelets.
