Every case, every emergency, is different: the medical mysteries are the most fraught. Along with more garden variety ailments, I've had a new cat, plucked from the streets after showing up at one of my colonies. He baffled the experts, and was sent home to die...twice, by allopathic-only doctors.
Good thing about being stubborn, you don't give up. Experience tells us that there's always more to know, to do. And yet I waited to get the ultrasound which gave us the last piece of the puzzle for Coco...that his liver was bleeding, from its entire surface!
Coco was in a good foster home, very close to me, and did well for three weeks. Then one morning the foster called, saying that he was vomiting and breathing fast. ER at once.
Bloodwork showed that he was extremely anemic, and he got a transfusion. His hematocrit (% of red cells in blood) was too low to sustain life. It bounced back to 20% after the transfusion (25-45% most say is normal) and held at19%. We crossed fingers and took him home. He did fine...!! but the cause of the anemia was still unknown. He did carry the feline Immunodeficiency virus but the vets said that that alone should not caused him to become so anemic. I've had plenty of FIV positive cats with no problems...
So it was wait and see...
There's a lot more to this story...Much more! Amazing and wonderful. But enough for today!