Emergency, or Can It Wait Until Morning?

It is eleven at night. Something is wrong with the cat. The clinic is shut, the nearest emergency service is forty minutes away through traffic, and you are trying to work out whether this is a now problem or a morning problem.

Nobody makes that decision well under pressure and without a framework. So here is one, written down in advance.

Go now. Do not wait for morning.

These are the situations where hours matter and waiting changes the outcome.

A male cat straining in the litter tray and producing nothing. This is the single most time-critical emergency in feline medicine and it is routinely mistaken for constipation. A blocked urethra means the bladder cannot empty; potassium rises, the heart rhythm destabilises, and a cat can die within a day or two of the first sign. If a male cat is going in and out of the tray, crying, licking at himself, and nothing is coming out — go.

Open-mouth breathing, or breathing with visible effort. Cats do not pant. A cat breathing with its mouth open, or with its belly heaving, or sitting upright with its elbows pushed out and its neck extended, is in respiratory distress. Handle it as little as possible and go. Stress alone can kill a cat that is struggling to breathe.

A sudden inability to use the back legs, usually with crying and cold back feet. This is often a clot lodged where the aorta divides, and it is agonising. It needs pain relief urgently regardless of what is decided afterwards.

Any suspected poisoning. Lilies in particular — every part of a true lily, including pollen tracked in on fur, causes kidney failure in cats, and the window for effective treatment is short. Also: paracetamol, permethrin dog flea treatment applied to a cat, antifreeze, rodent bait. Take the packet with you.

A road traffic accident, even a cat that walks home and seems fine. Diaphragm ruptures and internal bleeding declare themselves hours later.

Seizures, especially more than one, or one lasting beyond a couple of minutes.

A high fall, from a balcony in particular. Indian apartment balconies are the commonest version of this.

Bleeding that does not stop with a few minutes of pressure.

If a male cat is straining in the tray and nothing is coming out, stop reading and go. That one is measured in hours.

Go in the morning, but do go

These are real and they need seeing. They rarely need seeing at 2am.

• Not eating for 24 hours. In cats this is more serious than it sounds — a cat that stops eating can develop liver problems within days, particularly if overweight — but it is a same-day problem, not a same-hour one.

• Vomiting a few times, with the cat otherwise bright and drinking.

• Limping without an obvious wound, with the cat still using the leg a little.

• A new lump.

• Drinking noticeably more than usual, and using the tray more.

• An eye that is half-closed or weeping.

• Bad breath, or drooling, or dropping food.

• Weight loss you have noticed without trying to.

The questions that actually sort it

When you are not sure, four things separate serious from wait-and-see.

Is it breathing normally? Watch the chest for fifteen seconds with the cat at rest. Anything laboured moves the cat straight into the first list.

Is it hiding somewhere new? A cat that has taken itself under a bed it never uses, and will not come out for food, is telling you something. Cats withdraw when they feel bad. This is the sign owners most often notice and most often discount.

Can it pee? Look in the tray. Wet clumps mean the plumbing works.

Are the gums pink? Lift the lip. Pale, white, blue or grey gums, or gums that stay pale after you press and release, all mean go now.

Before the night it happens

Do these three things this week, while nothing is wrong.

Find your nearest 24-hour clinic now and save the number. Not the nearest clinic — the nearest one that actually answers at night. Many practices that say "emergency" mean "we will call you back". Our directory lists which clinics in each city take emergencies and which hold 24-hour cover.

Know how you would get there at 1am. In most Indian cities that means knowing whether a cab will take an animal, or which neighbour has a car.

Have the carrier accessible, not on top of a wardrobe behind the suitcases. Ideally, have a cat that will walk into it.

What this article is not

It is not a diagnosis, and it is deliberately conservative. If your instinct says something is badly wrong and the list above says otherwise, follow your instinct. You know this cat and we do not.

Nobody has ever regretted taking a cat in and being told it was nothing.