Luckie Kitty's Tail

At the time of her diagnosis, we had come home from a weekend at our new camp to find Luckie drooling, weak, and obviously not doing well. It was a Sunday night, so we called the Emergency Veterinary Center located near us. We brought her in and they made a preliminary diagnosis pretty quickly. She was severely dehydrated and likely had not eaten for awhile due to acid in her digestive tract. We had four cats at the time, so it was not always easy to know who was eating and how much. They put her on IV fluids and kept her overnight, telling us that in the morning, we would have the option of bringing her to our regular vet or having her transferred over to the Center for Advanced Veterinary Care (AVC) which was in the same building as the emergency clinic.

In the morning, we decided to have her transferred to AVC. Jennifer McClellan was the Internist on staff and she called us later that day to talk about Luckie's diagnosis and our options. Luckie would need to be on an IV for a few more days, but we were encouraged to come visit her, which we did that afternoon. The first thing that struck me when I saw her was that she was shaved in multiple places. She had been so dehydrated that finding a vein had been a bit challenging. I later came to joke that the right of passage for being a patient at AVC was to have at least one body part shaved. When I would see an animal come in with all hair intact, I would say "Is this your first visit here?" Invariably it was.

Luckie was lethargic and pathetic looking that first night. She hadn't been tempted by any of the food that they offered her and she is not overly fond of being at the vet. That is a minor understatement. When she was feeling well, she was known to be a holy terror at the vet. She had no front claws, but vet techs were still known to approach her with those big gloves they use for protection. She hissed and growled and batted at them. If I hadn't witnessed it myself, I would never have believed that she was capable of that behavior because she had such a sweet disposition at home.