How much to get a cat blood tested?

[lizziejayne66]

thanks i have looked up blood groups on the net, thats why i was concerned, but the vet said he has never heard of kittens dying, he said just to look out for brown pee, that could be difficult, what if she gives birth when we are asleep? i asked him about testing, he said he d ring back, but he did not. i looked online and i guess different countys charge diff prices but one vet in durham charges £67 for blood grouping. my vet said all it would give me is peace of mind
now i dont know what to do. do i get the male tested? if he a diff blood group then i may have probs, my vet said some could same blood group as queen then they d be fine
soi dnt know, vet said you cannot tell a kittens bloodgroup

[lizziejayne66]

i havent had the male long, he will be nueatred im not a breeder
now all i want is to make sure there healthy.

[Kay]

You would need to test both mum and dad. It wiould be pointless testing the kittensas it would be to late then. You need to know prior to delivery then in there is the issue with incompatibility you can remove the kittens from mum before they feed and hand rear them for the first 3-4 days then they can go back to mum. Be aware though that hand rearing is not easy in newborns.

[smudgley]

I'm confused.

What is this thread about?

What condition/disease is this?

Why is handrearing going to help?

I'm interested to know more.....

[Kay]

It is neonatal isoerythrolysis . If the sire and dam are of different blood groups then there is an issue with the kittens. If say the sire is group A, the main blood group for cats, is mated to a Group B dam the kittens born with blood group A or AB are at risk.

The problem occurs when the kittens start feeding. The mums blood contains anti A anti-bodies and these are passed through the colostrum to the kitten. These anti bodies destroy the group A red blood cells and the kitten usually dies. It is possible for ti to occur in the reverse so to speak but uncommon as anti B anti-bodies are never present in the same amounts as the Anti A antibodies and therefore does not generally cause neonatal isoerythrolysis.

To avoid kitten losses in these cases it is essential that kittens are not allowed to feed off mum for the first 24 hours, many breeders consider 2-3 days better, therefore this is where the hand feeding is needed.

[dandysmom]

Is this like rh negative in humans?

[Kay]

Don't know anything about RH negative in humans Eileen.

[Kay]

In a way it is similar but also different.

In cats it is purely down to the blood group not a rhesus problem. Also there isn't a risk to the mother cat as there is to a human mother. It is the kittens that are at risk.

[smudgley]

Thanks Kay, that is very interesting.

Yes DM it very much sounded to me like rhesus negative in humans, that's exactly what I thought... very interesting, may have to read more about it. Thankyou. I presume it is extremely rare? Is it breed specific?

[Kay]

Most cats are group A but there are some breeds that have a higher chance of being group B than others with BSH and breeds that use them as outcrosses being the highest. Siamese, Orientals and Tonkinese have been found in research projects to always be group A. It isn't rare and probably occurs more than breeders realise as the kittens die similar to those with fading kitten syndrome.