When we brought my 5 year old kitty to them from the Bay Area, at our regular vets insistence (there were no other specialists closer) he was near death with some unknown event that had put him into shock. He was bleeding internally with no apparent injuries and consuming all his clotting factors and going into multi system organ failure. When we arrived at the Animal Care Center after a two hour drive, I was distraught carrying my beloved dying kitty. They got us right in. They were honest with us, he was critical. They got Harley through the next 2 days alive and improving. He had central lines, dopamine/dobutamine, plasma, volume expanders,antibiotics, echo's, x-rays, 2 iv's, Foley catheter, oxygen....and the list goes on... At the 2 day mark Harley took a turn for the worst and needed a blood transfusion and did not cross match to any kitties blood in the hospital and they called me. He needed to go to Davis. We were 2 hrs away and two hours to transport him to Davis....I asked, hoping against hope, do you have an emergency transport service for pets? Yes, there was one available, so the arrangements were made. Instead of taking 4 hours with us picking him up and taking him to Davis it only took 2hrs. We got to Davis 20 min before Harley arrived, they whisked him right in and after a brief assessment and review of his labs, he was cross matched to the LAST UNIT OF BLOOD DAVIS HAD!!!!, and transfused and got much better. Harley remained in the ICU for 5 days and 2 days in the med ward and now he is home!!!! No, we still don't know what happened. All the tests for infectious disorders, malignancies, bleeding disorders, toxins etc......were all negative.
The Animal Care Center did an excellent job, and they also knew when it was time to go to Davis. The staff at both centers were very supportive and realistic and had the knowledge to save him. The living conditions of the creatures in the Animal Care Center was very very clean and quite plush, you could visit almost any time you wanted.
At Davis we could only visit once a day for 15min........which was quite a shock.
I owe the Animal Care Center every praise I can think of. My Harley is home now and well as though nothing had happened!!! 5***** Although this whole event was quite expensive it was money well spent and I would do it all again..
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