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    mchammond's Avatar
    mchammond Posts: 1, Reputation: 1
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    #1

    Jun 26, 2009, 09:24 PM
    Sudden Death
    Two days ago my cat died very suddenly. It seems to me to have been more traumatic than any answers that I have found so far. We noticed him on the couch he was completely stretched out and he would twitch and then desperately suck in air. When I looked at him, his eyes were completely vacant and there was no response from him at all. The twitching got progressively worse until he finally died. He never made a sound through any of it. From the moment we noticed him and death was probably no more than 5 minutes but it wasn't the instantaneous death I keep reading about. He was 13 but very healthy. I had blood work done every year and never had anything show up. He was on special food cause he got bladder stones about six years ago but we never had any problems once he was put on the diet. He did not show any signs of distress throughout the day. In fact, he had been running around with our younger cat just a little bit earlier. Only issue we were having was coughing up hairballs every once in a while and about an hour before he died he ate his food too fast and threw it up. He has done this his whole life, the food comes back up whole cause he never chewed it. He always had food so I never did understand why he would scarf it down.
    Just Dahlia's Avatar
    Just Dahlia Posts: 2,155, Reputation: 445
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    #2

    Jun 26, 2009, 09:38 PM

    I'm very sorry about your loss
    mudweiser's Avatar
    mudweiser Posts: 2,750, Reputation: 707
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    #3

    Jun 26, 2009, 09:44 PM

    Perhaps he was choking on a hairball or poorly chewed food?

    I too am sorry for your loss.

    Sarah
    shazamataz's Avatar
    shazamataz Posts: 6,642, Reputation: 1244
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    #4

    Jun 27, 2009, 04:12 AM

    I am very sorry about your kitty.

    Unfortunately it is just one of those things that you may never know what happened, keep his toys and blankets in a box and bring them out again once you have finished grieving, they can be a wonderful reminder of your beloved furry friend.
    redhed35's Avatar
    redhed35 Posts: 4,221, Reputation: 1910
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    #5

    Jun 27, 2009, 05:19 AM

    Hey,I'm sorry to hear about your pet.. sometimes there is no answer to a question.
    punk0817's Avatar
    punk0817 Posts: 2, Reputation: 1
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    #6

    Jul 26, 2009, 10:35 AM

    Sorry to hear about you losing him :(... but did you ever have him checked for epilepsy? It kind of sounds like a seizure.. my dog has seizures all the time and when he does he eyes too go very vacant... did he pee on the couch or anything? Because that is another sign of a seizure.

    Unfortunately you may not ever know what happened but that is the first thing I thought of... hope it helped a little
    Ren6's Avatar
    Ren6 Posts: 539, Reputation: 121
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    #7

    Jul 27, 2009, 06:02 AM
    Wow. I'm sorry about your kitty. One of my cats died in this manner... it was a stroke. It's hard to witness something like that.
    joyluo1999's Avatar
    joyluo1999 Posts: 240, Reputation: 12
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    #8

    Jul 27, 2009, 09:37 AM
    I'm sorry for your loss but you may never know what your kitty died from.

    Joy
    morgaine300's Avatar
    morgaine300 Posts: 6,561, Reputation: 276
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    #9

    Jul 27, 2009, 11:36 PM

    I think you've been mislead by reading about this "instantaneous death." I have no idea where you've gotten that from. Except for something sudden like being hit by a car, there normally isn't anything instantaneous. Maybe it just appears that way to some people because they don't notice anything going on. Or, if the cat is sick and someone has them PTS, they pretty much do just sort of lull off to sleep easily.

    I'm wondering if that was a heart problem. It doesn't really sound very specific though. There's a really good chance that something actually was wrong and you didn't know it. Cats hide things and they're very good at it, so we don't always see what is going on with them. People who don't know cats really well are not always aware of this, and then things come as a big surprise. (Well, sometimes it's a surprise even when we know cats well.) Don't let that blood work fool you. First of all, not everything will show up there, and second, things can change. The older they get, the faster things can change.

    Unless you want to spend the money for an autopsy, I don't think you will ever know. But it sounds to me like you're wondering because it's not what you read about, and I think what you're reading isn't really the norm. So if you can let go of that, you might be able to deal with this much better. Sometimes we just don't know things.

    I am sorry for your loss though. I know some people don't understand this, but we can become very, very close to our pets and their loss can be tragic. Do something special in his honor, and I hope you can have some peace.
    abi29's Avatar
    abi29 Posts: 11, Reputation: 1
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    #10

    Jul 31, 2009, 02:30 AM

    I am really sorry. I no just how you feel, This cat I knew really well did that. That is just the matter of life. It can't be helped
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