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internal bleeding

I woke up In the morning to find my cat extremely weak and disoriented. She had vomited and was laying awkwardly on her side and seemed very uncomfortable. I waited a few hours but when I was getting ready for wok I noticed that she had not improved and was meowing strangely and looked almost confused. I rushed her to the vet and they took her temperature and looked at her gums. Her temperature was around 90 degrees and her gums were pale white. We took her over to an emergency clinic after they gave her an I.V. and warmed her up. Once at the emergency clinic they took blood tests which showed her RBC at about 13%. She was given a blood transfusion and in the middle of it she stopped breathing. They were able to revive her and she was better 2 hours later and they next morning was even more alert. However, she gradually go worse and eventually died. I'm wondering if they should have continued to give her blood transfusions as necessary and maybe do some exploratory surgery. There was obvious internal bleeding but the doctor wanted to stabilize her first. It doesn’t make sense to me because the cause of her illness hadn't been identified and stopped. He said her was going to treat her for an ulcer and that didn't include surgery. I'm wondering if they should have opened her up immediately. What is normally done in these types of situations?
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Avatar universal
Thanks for the input. They did take an x-ray but it didn't reveal anything. The vet didn't want to do an ultrasound until she was stable, by which time it was too late
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228686 tn?1211554707
The problem with these situations (and don't take this as blame, it isn't) people tend to wait until the situation is dire. Generally, by the time the vet gets their hands on the animal they can't risk surgery (with a temperature of 90, it sounded serious!)

So don't feel bad. The vet did the right thing (as did you). The chances that she would have survived an immediate exploratory are slim. Possibly after initial stabilization it may have worked out, but that's a judgment call that's high risk.

My one question is did they do any x-rays? With internal bleeding, I'd think they would have considered it.
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