A dog which swallowed rat poison had its life saved by a blood transfusion from another pet.

Chloe Muir-Smith, 26, of Canterbury Road, Lydden, thought she was going to lose her two-year-old labrador Ace after a walk in neighbouring farm fields.

The farm, owned by the family of her partner Philip Seath, had put down rat poison, and Ace had somehow managed to drink some of it.

She said: “We are always extremely careful where it is put but a rat must have dragged it out and my dog usually has a free run of the farm.”

“He is part of the family so we wanted to do everything we could” - Chloe Muir-Smith

On Saturday, May 2, Ace was taken to the White Mill vets in Sandwich, but he was later transferred to an emergency centre for critical care in Canterbury.

“At first he seemed to be OK, but at 11pm that night the vets said he had gone down hill,” she said. After deteriorating rapidly, tests discovered that Ace was bleeding internally and that a blood transfusion would be his only chance of survival.

The surgery did not hold any blood, and the nearest vet that did was in Gillingham.

So the mother-of-one was asked to think of anyone living closer with a similar-sized dog, which was up-to-date on vaccinations and of the same blood match.

“He is part of the family so we wanted to do everything we could,” said Ms Muir-Smith. “Until this happened I wasn’t aware that dogs had different blood groups like humans.”

After posting an appeal on Facebook, she got a reply from close friend Stacey Gott, 31, of Lyndhurst Road, River.

Ms Gott, who was working a night shift at the Port of Dover, owns a labrador-cross of a similar age called Grace.

She agreed to let her dog give blood after a test proved they were the same match.

Within four hours, Ace began to show signs of improvement, but remained in the vets for a further two days.

Ms Gott said: “It makes you think how many dogs have been in life-threatening situations where blood could have saved their lives and how many dogs have died through it.

“I couldn’t believe it. It all happened so quickly. It is amazing that he is still here, he was at death’s door.

“He couldn’t even lift his head when I got there.”

The friends, who grew up horse-riding together, want to encourage more owners to put their dogs on the blood donor register.

The White Mill in Sandwich has a blood donor register. For more information, call 01304 611999.

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