Veterinary surgeons issued guidelines yesterday for kidney transplants in cats — and plunged the pet world into confusion.
Around 50 to 1 200 renal transplants are performed on cats and dogs in the US each year. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons decided that pressure for such operations could grow in Britain and outlined strict guidelines for its 20 000 members.
”Increasingly, pet owners are expecting the same treatments for their pets as for themselves,” the college said. Stephen Ware, its president, said the decision to conduct a transplant would be a clinical one, which would depend on the condition of the patient, the suitability of the ”donor” animal, and the right kind of specialist backup.
”We are expecting only a handful of cases in the UK in the early years,” he said.
Some 30 000 Britons receive some kind of kidney treatment and almost 5 000 are waiting for transplants. Renal failure is common in cats, too. But feline transplantation is not a cure — in the US experience, it prolongs life by about two years — and must be followed by daily drug doses and weekly checkups. The donor would be a relative with the same tissue type and blood group.
A college representative said that it was not endorsing the practice of transplanting cat kidneys, merely preparing for likely future demand.
”It is is difficult to gauge people’s feelings about this,” he said. ”Some people have pets and get on fine with them and are happy to feed them and live with them. Some people have very close connections with their animals and are prepared to pay the earth for them.
”So it is very difficult to say what another person should and shouldn’t do.”
The decision set the metaphorical cat among the veterinary pigeons. Peter Jinman, the president of the British Veterinary Association, said the guidelines were welcome, given the inevitability of requests by pet owners.
But big questions remain, he said, no less the fact that donors, unlike human donors, cannot give their consent.
The BVA also has reservations about whether the transplant process is ethical.
The British Small Animals Veterinary Association also said it had concerns. The cat that surrendered its kidney would need aftercare — and the recipient would need longterm care from immunologists and other specialists.
The RSPCA pointed out that it was opposed to such transplants, although it welcomed the guidelines. It added that the donor animal could be subjected to unnecessary suffering and if so, the veterinary transplant surgeon could be prosecuted under the Protection of Animals Act of 1911.
In the US, pet owners who saved a cat or dog at the cost of another animal — usually a stray — were expected to adopt the donor as well.
”Under no circumstances would the RSPCA be prepared to donate any cat in its care to become a donor,” said a representative of the society. – Guardian Unlimited Â