• Question: DO ANIMALS HAVE ANY BLOOD GROUPS LIKE HUMANS? I ONLY WANT TO KNOW BECUASE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF MY CATS WERE TO BOTH GET RUN OVER BY A CAR AND LOOSE A LOT OF BLOOD, THEY MIGHT NEED LIKE A BLOOD TRANSPLANT THING SO THE VETS WOULD SURELY NEED TO KNOW THEIR BLOOD TYPE? :)

    Asked by susejdog to Damien, Rachael, Simon, Suzi, Tim on 20 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Damien Hall

      Damien Hall answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Animals do have blood groups! Some details (quite a lot of details, actually) are here:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_type_%28non-human%29

      I wouldn’t worry about it, though. If your cats ever did have an accident, the vets would know what to do, and would be able to test for their blood group so as to give them the right kind of blood. It’s not something you have to know beforehand (though you might be interested, it’s not essential). I don’t even know my own blood group! Every so often I ask, but I always forget the answer.

      Besides, you should remember, from other questions in this group, that:

      – cats have nine lives
      – you can save your cats from accidents by simply tying a piece of buttered toast to each of their backs, butter side up. Cats always land on their feet, and buttered toast always lands butter side down, so doing this will result in either a floating cat or a cat that’s spinning above the ground. Either way, it can’t hit anything.

    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Hi @susejdog
      I didn’t know the answer to this, but it’s very interesting.

      The good news is that doctors (or vets) can find out really quickly what blood group you (or you pet) are. I don’t actually know what blood group I am, so if I had an accident they’d have to check mine before giving me blood!

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