This past easter, my 15 year old persian cat passed away. We knew he had entered into the dying phase, and we took him to see the vet. Our vets told us that he wasn't in pain and that it would be okay to let him die naturally (instead of euthanizing him).

A number of hours before he died, he started losing the ability to use his hind legs, and then his front legs started to give out on him, too. We helped him to stay warm, clean, fed and very, very loved. But when we were going to bed that night, his head began to get very shaky, wobbling from side to side (but not up and down like nodding). Does anyone know what that might have been?

We fell asleep together, and in the morning he died. He let out two big meows then. He was not much of a meower. I really hope and pray that he didn't suffer.

I know that he became very, very weak, but in the time before he died you could see in his eyes that he was so happy to be so close to us (I also stopped working in the days beforehand to be with him), and he even managed to purr. I loved him sooooo much, there aren't words to express it.

If anyone can help us to understand what these symptoms might have been caused by, we would be extremely grateful.

That is sad.
That does sound like a natural dying process.
The meows were probably what people call 'death rattle' which is common in many people at the point of death.
He probably wasn't in any pain.

I Just Want To Say I Am So Sorry For Your Lose . I Had A Blue Cream Per. For 12yrs .and Just Out Of The Blue She Fell Off The Windowsill.. no Other Sym. Then She Was Laying On The Bk. Of A Chair.. and Same Thing.. we Took Her To The Vet . And They Ran All Kinds Of Test.. realy Couldn't Find Anything.. wanted Us To Take Her To A Un. Hosp... So They Could Do Farther Test.. (we Didn't)after A Few Wks With Not Finding Anything, We Had To Put Her To Sleep.. they Let Us Spend Time With Her B4 They Did It.. And She Just Looked Up At Me As To Say Thank You Mommy... this Was Like 19 Yrs Ago And I'm Crying Now Just Thinking About It.. so I Feel Your Pain... rest In Peace Baby Pumpkin Seed...