A night emergency compresses everything: you are frightened, the cat is unwell, and a vet you have never met is asking questions down the phone. A ready-pack of information, assembled in the calm minutes before you dial, changes that call completely. The emergency vet triages from what you report, decides how fast the cat must be seen, and prepares the clinic while you travel. Every item below earns its place by being asked for, in roughly this order, on real emergency calls — and the framing matters throughout: phone before setting off, never simply arrive.
The Cat's Basic Facts
Start with the identity facts: your cat's age, breed, and weight. Age frames every judgement an emergency vet makes, since the same sign reads differently in a kitten, an adult, and a senior cat. Breed matters where breed-linked conditions exist, and weight matters because so much of emergency care is calculated against it. Add whether the cat lives indoors, outdoors, or both, and whether the cat is neutered, since the vet will ask and fumbling for it costs time. These facts take seconds to state when they are assembled and surprisingly long to reconstruct under stress, which is the entire argument for keeping them written down before any emergency exists.
What Happened, and the Signs
Next comes the event and the signs, in order. State what happened and when as plainly as you can: the fall, the fight, the vomiting that began at midnight, the moment you found the cat hiding and unresponsive to food. Then describe the signs themselves and how long each has been present — breathing changes, bleeding, straining, collapse, repeated vomiting, a swollen face, a cry of pain — and whether they are steady, easing, or getting worse. Add the ordinary history the vet needs around the emergency: the last meal eaten, and the last urination and defecation you know of, since a cat that has not urinated, or has strained without producing, is giving triage information in that single fact. If anything could have been eaten — a plant, a medicine left out, string, a small object — say so, and say what the possible toxin or foreign-body access was even if you are only guessing, because possible access is itself reportable.
Conditions, Medicines, and Your Usual Vet
Known conditions and current medicines are the third block, relayed as the cat's history exactly as prescribed: the condition names as your vet gives them, and each medicine with its name and how it is given, read from the label rather than from memory. A cat on long-term medication arrives with a different risk picture from a cat on none, and the emergency team cannot factor in what it has not been told. Have your usual vet's details ready too — practice name and phone number — because the emergency clinic will often want the daytime records, and at night the fastest route to them runs through the information you hand over.
Ready to Travel
Finally, the practical readiness that lets the call end in movement. The cat should be secured in a carrier before you phone where that can be done safely, both because a frightened cat in a car is a danger and because the clinic will ask whether the cat can be brought straight in. Know how the cat is travelling: who is driving, how long the journey takes, and whether someone can phone ahead en route if the cat deteriorates. Call first and follow the instructions given, since the clinic may direct you to a nearer site, prepare oxygen or a theatre, or talk you through the minutes before you leave. Arriving announced, with the history ready, is the fastest arrival there is.
KinsLe's Pet Passport stores your cat's age, breed, weight, conditions, and medicines as a standing health record, so the ready-pack is already written when the night call comes.