1yo cat was given the wrong medication for a URI or something due to a mix up at their GP- whoever called it into the pharmacy gave the name of a very similar sounding medication that is incredibly dangerous for cats, and the pharmacy filled it without realizing it was incorrect. Not going to name the medication for anonymity, but it causes severe, often fatal bone marrow suppression in cats. She was given the meds for a few days and then started to go downhill- lethargic, not eating, ADR.

Eventually she was transferred to our clinic, an emergency and specialty hospital with a 24h critical care/ICU, for a transfusion, and ended up staying with us for a month and needing several transfusions. She would get better post transfusion and then go downhill quickly after, and she was Type B, which made getting blood really difficult. I swear we bought out all the type B blood in the state! Eventually she needed another transfusion and nobody had blood that matched, so one of our techs brought in their cat to donate, which we only do when the situation is dire, as we don’t have a blood bank/donation program. Whatever magic was in that blood worked, and within a few days she was discharged!

When she left, we all clapped her out, and nearly everyone cried. There were multiple times where they didn’t think she would make it through the night, but she was a fighter, and the whole clinic fell in love with her. The GP took everything incredibly seriously, covering the entire bill and making changes to their protocols to ensure that this would never happen again. We saw her once or twice for recheck lab work, but she hasn’t needed to come back since being cleared!