Small Animal Emergency and Critical Care Medicine Q&A 12

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This two-year-old, FeLV-positive, entire male cat presented for anorexia and lethargy. Physical examination revealed: pale mucous membranes; RR – 80 bpm; HR – 240 bpm. PCV – 70%; TS – 8.0 g/dl.

Question	Answer		Article
Which infectious disease would be likely to be causing the anemia in this FeLV–positive cat?	Haemobartonella felis is a common cause of anemia in FeLV positive cats.		[[|Link to Article]]
Would you expect the anemia to be regenerative or non-regenerative?	Typically, FeLV is associated with macrocytosis; however, cats with H. felis infection may be normocytic (MVC – 60–70 fl) and non-regenerative.		[[|Link to Article]]
Describe your protocol for transfusing this cat.	Generally, whole blood is administered to cats requiring RBC transfusion. Whole blood can be withdrawn from a donor cat by sedating the donor with ketamine (2–4 mg/kg i/v). Typically, approximately 50–60 ml of blood can be withdrawn from the donor cat into a syringe containing 9 ml of acid citrate dextrose (7 ml of blood/ml of acid citrate dextrose). The volume and rate of blood administered varies with the patient’s clinical signs and laboratory data. In general, 2 ml/kg of whole blood will increase the patient’s PCV by 1%. The transfusion rate for whole blood should be 5 mg/kg during a 4-hour period or, if the patient is hypovolemic, 5 ml/kg/hour. The first 10 ml should be given slowly over a 15 minute period to observe for adverse reactions. Blood should always be administered through an appropriate filter and administration set designed to retain blood clots and other debris.		[[ |Link to Article]]