Japanese pet owners are praying their charges don’t get sick. The only
company in Japan that makes blood test kits for pets has gone out of business,
and the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture has banned imports. So vets are having
to guess the blood types of animals requiring transfusions. They have two
options: they can mix up the blood of the sick animal with blood from a
prospective donor and see if it coagulates—which is a sign of a bad match,
but not a reliable test—or use donor animals that have a one-size-fits-all
blood type. Many vets are transfusing blood without doing any tests and hoping
for the best.
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