Transfusing

This Springer Spaniel has a nasty disease which is destroying his platelets (thrombocytes). Platelets are blood cells which do one thing only - they plug broken blood vessels. This enables the vessels to repair .* If a dog (or another animal, such as a a human) has too few platelets (s)he will very soon bleed to death.

This dog is receiving a transfusion with fresh blood from a donor dog harvested only an hour or two before I took the photo. Fresh blood is the best source of fresh healthy platelets.

With luck, the blood transfusion will buy us enough time to treat the cause of the platelet deficit effectively.

Blood really is the elixir of life. I hope we can put the Spring back into this Spaniel.

*I have simplified this somewhat (as anyone who has ever tried to learn the coagulation cascade will surely testify).