[Silentgypsy]

Why not?

[TheOldLady]

Hi, SG. Bryan did some research, and he found out that it has been common practice for about five years to take blood from the jugular vein in cats without having to
shave the area. The vet did the right thing after all, but I really wish that she had explained that to me. It would have saved me a lot of worry and speculation.
They never drew blood from our cats anywhere but from their front legs before now.

There is a lot of information out there about this subject. Here is one example of what Bryan found:

RE: Technical question about bloodwork in cats

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• Posted by meghane (My Page) on

Wed, Oct 8, 08 at 19:34

I draw blood from MANY cats every day, and in only VERY few cases have ever shaved them. I prefer the jugular vein for larger samples for several reasons 1) you can get the full sample in one poke not multiple small pokes 2) the jugular vein does not clot as easy as smaller veins (cannot have a clotted sample for CBCs and other types of labwork) 3) it's MUCH faster and since kitties generally hate the restraint more than the actual poke it is better for them. For smaller samples such as just PCV/TS, glucose only, or FeLV/FIV tests, I usually draw from a back leg but that depends on the cat. Some prefer to sit up and some prefer to lay on their sides.

The jugular vein is the EASIEST draw in a cat, IMHO, which is why I always go for it.