August 17th is National Black Cat Appreciation Day. This is a much-needed holiday as black cats have been unfairly maligned since the Middle Ages. In a Papal Bull issued in 1232, Pope Gregory IX damned black cats as the incarnation of Satan. Several centuries later, another Pope, Innocent VIII, linked cats, the devil and witches by writing, “The cat is the devil’s favorite animal and idol of all witches.” At the time of the Salem witch trials in colonial Massachusetts, witches were thought to transform into black cats who could roam the countryside and cause mischief.
These superstitions have led to “black cat bias,” a term applied to the negative feelings people have about black cats, compared to cats with other coat colors. Black cat bias may also lead to longer shelter stays for black cats relinquished to an animal shelter.
Today’s blogpost will focus on one of these unfortunate black cats, a five-week-old, flea-infested black kitten, brought to AMC by a Good Samaritan. This little waif was covered with so many fleas, she had become anemic. The photo accompanying the blogpost shows her in her ICU incubator with an IV catheter in her arm for her blood transfusion.
Mathematics of Flea Bite Anemia
Fleas are the vampires of the insect world. While female fleas drink nearly twice the amount of blood per day as males, but we will assume an average blood consumption of a flea is 10 microliters per day, to make the math easier. Therefore, a flea infestation of 100 fleas would consume 1 milliliter of blood per day. Our unfortunate black kitten weighed only three-quarters of a pound and had only 25 milliliters of blood in her body. That’s only five teaspoons! She desperately needed a blood transfusion upon arrival at AMC and even needed a second one a day later.
Feline Blood Transfusions
Even though the two transfusions were a tiny amount of blood, each less than a teaspoon, they were crucial in getting her back to health. Like humans, cats have multiple blood types, and giving the wrong type of blood can result in a severe transfusion reaction. Our black kitten was blood typed and, luckily, she had the most common feline blood type, type A. In New York City, most domestic shorthair cats are blood type A. Blood type B is more common is certain purebred cats like the Rex, British shorthair, exotic shorthair and ragdoll cats.
A Happy Ending from a Sad Beginning
After the second blood transfusion, plus medication to kill the fleas, our little kitten turned the corner and started acting normally. We have a happy ending to this story to celebrate National Black Cat Appreciation Day. Our little waif has found a “furever” home and was discharge from the hospital to her new family.