My Cat Squeek Died Suddenly

[RainyNightinGA]

Hi. I'm new here as I found this site while trying to make sense of our cat's sudden, awful, traumatic death. We did not have a necropsy and now I really wish we would have. I so wish I could know what happened and why and whether it could have been prevented.

This past Thursday, about 5 a.m., I heard my cat Squeek coughing like he had a hairball. Maybe a half hour later, my husband and I heard a weird panting sound. At first we assumed it was our dog, who does that sometimes when he's excited about eating breakfast or going for a walk or wants attention. Then my husband said he thought it was our 22-year-old cat, Jazz, who's not doing super well as her kidneys aren't really functioning well and we're giving her sub-Q fluids. My husband got up to look and realized it was Squeek, our 9 and 1/2 year old orange cat who seemed perfectly healthy and had gotten a clean bill of health at his last vet appointment. He was overweight, but all his bloodwork was fine and he was very active and seemed healthy.

We turned on the lights, and he was lying on his side on the bathroom floor with his mouth wide open like he was panting. He was breathing, and it almost seemed like he was gagging or choking on something but we couldn't see anything in his mouth. There was some drool.

We scooped him into his carrier and rushed out the door to the emergency vet, which is only about five minutes away. We had first heard him panting, then heard him sort of flopping around and struggling in his carrier and then he was totally quiet. As soon as we got to the vet, they rushed him back and tried to revive him, but couldn't. My husband and I were devastated. We couldn't believe a seemingly healthy, full of personality cat could be just gone in minutes like that. It was so horrible to see him suffering and looking terrified and not be able to save him.

I asked my husband if we should get a necropsy, and he said no. I kind of didn't want to either because I hated the thought and I also worried it would show something that would make us feel worse (like he choked on something, or something else that seems preventable.)

I can't stop Googling about sudden cat deaths, and I wish I could go back in time and get the necropsy so we could know. I've come up with these possibilities:
-- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy that caused a blood clot (this seems most likely and would at least mean it wasn't our fault)
-- He choked on a hairball or something else and that caused his lungs to fill with fluid
-- Heartworms (he spent some time outside, mostly on the porch, and we never knew he should have been on heartworm preventive ... our vet never said anything about this ... it kills me that it could be this)
-- Urinary blockage (he had had UTIs in the past, and he peed outside the box sometimes ... I was out of town for a few days and returned a few days before he died ... when I got back I noticed there wasn't much of anything in the cat box, I assumed he was going outside or had gone in some other spot (our 22-year-old cat uses pee pads, and I've seen him use her pee pad sometimes) ... I only found out later my husband had also noticed there wasn't much in the box while I was out of town but hadn't mentioned it to me)
-- Poisoning (our friends had given us a silver pothos plant while I was out of town ... when I arrived back home, not realizing it was toxic to cats, I put it on a table that the cats couldn't reach without knocking it over ... before that while I was gone it sat in an area they could access ... I have no idea if he chewed on it or not ... but it would have to have been several days before this incident if he did.)
-- A blood clot for some random reason ... I worry it's because he was overweight.
-- A cat illness ... he had all his vaccs, but we have a few feral kitties we have started feeding in the past six months ... they have all been to vet and vaccinated, but who knows what they could have and maybe have given him. One of them comes inside sometimes and I worry the stress of this could have hurt Squeek or he could have caught something.

Anyway, I'm sort of torturing myself with all this. I feel so awful and guilty that this happened, and that we didn't see any signs in time to save him.

Squeek was a very special cat that my husband found on the side of the road when he was a tiny kitten. He almost died then, and we rushed him to an emergency vet who saved him (he was flea and worm ridden and his body had started to shut down.) He was a larger-than-life cat, always making us laugh and giving us crazy stories. Like, he disappeared on moving day when we moved to Georgia, and I ended up staying behind at our old house to look for him and even hired a pet detective ... it turned out he had been hiding in a nook in the basement while I was out trapping possums and raccoons in my cat traps I set in the neighborhood.

He was a total ham, and he loved my husband best. He would lurk around waiting for my husband to get in bed each night, then he'd hop up and settle in. I so wanted him to sleep by me, but he rarely would. Once a month or so, though, I'd wake up in the middle of the night to find his fuzzy warmth by my feet. That happened the night he died.

I miss him so much. He had such a huge presence, our house will never be the same without him. He even ruled over the dogs.

If anyone has any theories on what most likely could have killed him, I'd like to know. It would help me to at least hear what others think or if anyone else has experienced something similar. Thanks so much.

 

[Tilly206]

I am so sorry for your loss and I can completely relate to how you are feeling- including the guilt, wanting to go back in time(!!) and google searching for answers.

I lost my cat at the beginning of April due to un-diagnosed HCM which caused congestive heart failure (I have a thread in here with a bit more info if you want to read). I too am full of guilt about what happened! My cat showed no signs of breathing struggles from her mouth, her only symptom was holding her head down a couple of times in the weeks before (which we didn't think was anything as she seemed fine in herself) and being a bit off of her food, which we put down to a slight bad belly and existing gastro sensitivity. Her heart rate was elevated for a very short time the night before she passed and we started to suspect an infection. I have a read a lot about the condition/symptoms and from what you have said, HCM is definitely a possibility and can strike very suddenly.

 

[di and bob]

I have had many cats in my life, and been through a lot of deaths. What you describe I have witnessed several times and did have a necropsy done,and it turned out to be an undiagnosed heart defect/disease. Coughing is the number one symptom of this and I have had several cats diagnosed after they were brought in. I don't have necropsies done now, because it doesn't change the outcome. Don't feel guilty because you didn't either. Sometimes when it is their time there is not a thing in the world that will change it. No amount of money or procedures will change the inevitable and in fact can prolong the misery and pain. Of course you miss that sweet little boy. He was a treasured family member who was a ham that loved you and ruled the dogs with a velvet paw. Try to remember that you saved his life. You gave him over nine years of love and a home he loved. For that he thanks you so very much.
Try not to dwell on the end, I know it is impossible, there are always all those should haves, could haves that always come in the grieving process, but try to focus on his life, make it more important and foremost and not elevating the death above it and making it more important than the life. He gave you nine and a half years of devotion and happiness, that far outweighs the sadness his death brings (though it doesn't seem like it yet), or it will anyway in time, when you are thinking clearer and let your precious memories bring you comfort. Go forward into the future confident of his love and happiness and that you were the biggest part of bringing this about and the biggest part of his life. Just as you would want if you were the first to go. He wants no less for those he loves so much.
You developed a bond with that precious little one that is a part of your soul. No one and nothing will ever break that bond, because it was forged of love and so is eternal. do something good in his name, it will help to heal your broken heart. Donate to a local shelter or pay for the adoption of a cat so that they can find a forever home with your help. It makes you feel a little better about yourself.
Take care and know you aren't alone in your grief. There are many here who will share your burden and lift some of it from your shoulders. I'll keep you all in my thoughts and prayers........RIP beautiful Squeek. You will never be forgotten and will forever hold a secure place in loving hearts. May the good Lord bless and keep you, until you meet again!

 

[RainyNightinGA]

Thank you so much, Tilly206 and di and bob . Your kind words have helped me a lot this morning.

Tilly206 I'm so sorry you lost your beloved cat to undiagnosed HCM in April. I can imagine you still must be reeling from it too. I'm going to go and read your thread on HCM. I have read quite a bit about it too but haven't been able to find a description of whether a cat might seem like they're gagging or can't breathe if they die from it. I'm guessing they could if it caused a blood clot to get stuck in the lungs. I did find a study of sudden cat death causes, and it looked like undiagnosed heart disease was the #1 after trauma, and of the undiagnosed heart disease cases, most were HCM. It's something I was never aware of before but will definitely worry about going forward. I hope you are doing OK, or as well as possible, and I'm so sorry for your loss. I now know it can be even more difficult to lose a beloved cat suddenly than it is if you know it's coming

di and bob I appreciate your kind (and wise) words and experience. It does help to know that when you've experienced this you've had necropsies done and that the results were undiagnosed heart disease. Squeek did cough now and then, but not enough to concern us and we always assumed it was a hairball. I put him on hairball prevention food. In fact, it's weird because we took our feral-not-feral Ziggy, who comes inside sometimes, to the vet a few weeks before Squeek died because Ziggy had had a few coughing fits that concerned us. The vet suspected allergies and said nothing about heart disease. If Squeek had ever coughed enough to concern us, he would have been at the vet right away. But now I'm second guessing my chalking up his occasional cough to being a hairball. Maybe it was heart disease.

Thanks also for your advice to try not to dwell on his death. I think my brain is still trying to wrap itself around it because it was so sudden and traumatic, but I really hope to get to the time when I can focus on his life and all the enjoyment he had and the joy he brought us. He will always be a legend in our household, and we'll always tell Squeek stories. I'm so happy he survived when he was a tiny kitten so he could enjoy almost 10 years. I like to think of him sitting on the front porch at night in the spring time, the breeze ruffling his fur, enjoying the scent of jasmine and magnolias and listening to the crickets and katydids. He really did enjoy every minute and lived life on his terms.

I love this and am going to save this quote: "Go forward into the future confident of his love and happiness and that you were the biggest part of bringing this about and the biggest part of his life. Just as you would want if you were the first to go. He wants no less for those he loves so much." Thank you for that.

Re: helping another, my husband suggested that we adopt a 9 or 10-year-old cat that has been abandoned and give him "the rest of life that Squeek never had." We'd like to do that but have thought the better of it now since we plan to live abroad for a year two years from now and will be taking our animals with us. We definitely want to do that someday. But I saw that a local rescue has been calling for kitten fosters so they can save more from death row at the local shelter. I think fostering would be the idea way for us to honor Squeek right now.

 

[les26]

I am so sorry for your loss, like Di and Bob said it probably was something with the little guy's heart, we had a cat Skipper who passed away pretty suddenly a few years ago and even had him to the vet the day before but they found nothing, sometimes these bad things just seem to happen and we don't know the reason why. But it will take much time to get over this shock and trauma, it is so very hard to comprehend and deal with but with time you will slowly feel better, but I am so sorry for you sudden loss.

"Their last breath on Earth is their first breath in Heaven"

I hope your heart heals a bit more each day, God Bless.....

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Rest you gentle, Squeek, dream you deep. Your pawprints are on someone's heart forever.

Oh, sweetie, I am so sorry. I think this was probably a cardiac incident, and nothing would have changed the outcome. I can relieve your mind about the heartworms. Yes, cats can get them, but there is a slow build-up of symptoms leading to treatment or, if untreated, death. Not something sudden like this. There was no negigence on your (or your vet's) part about that. Rest easy on that one.

What I know, to the depths of my being, is that love never dies. It only changes form and continues on, still Love. Love abides. And I also think that Squeeky would totally approve of your fostering in his honor!

 

[Tilly206]

@Tilly206 I'm so sorry you lost your beloved cat to undiagnosed HCM in April. I can imagine you still must be reeling from it too. I'm going to go and read your thread on HCM. I have read quite a bit about it too but haven't been able to find a description of whether a cat might seem like they're gagging or can't breathe if they die from it. I'm guessing they could if it caused a blood clot to get stuck in the lungs. I did find a study of sudden cat death causes, and it looked like undiagnosed heart disease was the #1 after trauma, and of the undiagnosed heart disease cases, most were HCM. It's something I was never aware of before but will definitely worry about going forward. I hope you are doing OK, or as well as possible, and I'm so sorry for your loss. I now know it can be even more difficult to lose a beloved cat suddenly than it is if you know it's coming

Thank you! Yes, it has been a terrible time with the shock and guilt and I really feel for you losing your cat so suddenly in such a distressing way!

There are different types of the heart condition, so maybe look into that if you really want to know? Although my family wouldn't agree with me suggesting that to anyone as I’ve been compulsively searching and it’s helped me to process in some way but at the same time, it HURTS and has made me wish id researched more into complications relating to my cats Hyperthyroidism when she was diagnosed. I was under the impression I was doing everything I could and her 6 monthly check ups/blood tests were adequate in monitoring things. I had never heard of HCM either. The vet didnt mention it being linked (no ill feeling towards to vets as these things can be missed, in HCM- a murmur isn’t always present etc).
Sooty was always ‘tachycardic’ at her appointments, but no mention of anything.. (but maybe thats because she didnt like the vets and it was within a ‘normal’ range? I dont know as wasnt told) so like you, I will be so cautious with my kitten now and be more pressing with questions at consultations! Its sad that it takes these terrible situations for us to realise.
Im sorry thats quite full on about my situation, just trying to help you out. Another thing to add is that Sooty had a dental scale and polish at the end November, she had a consultation, thyroid bloods then a couple of weeks later, pre-op bloods and was under general anaesthetic.. nothing was detected. HCM can apparently come on/escalate very quickly (weeks/months).
I have read of other cats appearing to struggle to breathe/gag due to HCM.

Can I ask, did your cat have any other health problems?

I agree about losing a beloved cat suddenly! The shock of losing one we love is too much pain to bear in itself, but on top of that.. to feel you missed something or somehow caused it, causes so much more pain.

 

[RainyNightinGA]

les26 -- Thank you very much for the nice words. I'm sorry to hear that your cat Skipper passed away suddenly too. You're right that sometimes there is just nothing that can be done, and these things happen. I guess I wasn't prepared because I'm used to my cats living long lives ... as I mentioned, we have a 22-year old, and two of our previous cats lived to age 18.

Mamanyt1953 -- Thanks for the comments about the heart worms. That does help a lot. I do plan to put my cats on Revolution from now on, but I'm glad to know there would likely have been symptoms. It's just hard to wrap my brain around the idea that this would happen with no symptoms at all, even if it was HCM. It seems like we should have seen some red flag that would have told us to take him to the vet. Thanks too for your nice comments about Squeek.

Tilly206 -- I feel for you too losing your kitty so suddenly as well. I can relate to what you said about how the compulsive research helps and hurts at the same time. I think it can be a way to get stuck in "what ifs" that aren't necessarily helpful but it can also be a way to become better informed and more proactive for the future. It's very tough and emotionally exhausting. I can completely understand what you're going through.

That's really incredible that your Sooty was at the vet with all that testing and nothing was detected not long before she was diagnosed. It's very troubling these things can come on so suddenly. No, my Squeek did not have any problems other than being overweight. He had had bloodwork done at his last annual exam and everything checked out fine. The vet did say to have him lose weight and we did try but it didn't seem to go very well as he didn't lose AND he was very cranky, so I'm sad to say we had not succeeded. I didn't learn about the possibility that doing an all canned diet might help him lose until after he died and I was doing a lot of online research. I totally wish I'd been more proactive seeking information because I think an all canned diet could have maybe helped him slim down

Anyway, thanks for all of your comments and I'm sorry you're going through similar guilt and anguish. I hope the answers you've found online help somewhat and that you're able to find peace knowing that you did all you could.

 

[tinydestroyer]

I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. Squeak sounds like he was a truly amazing cat with a very special personality. I only want to second the points that others made: it really doesn't sound like heartworns to me, either, as the onset of symptoms was very sudden. I've seen heartworms in dogs enough times, and cured them, and I feel like you'd have noticed his ongoing symptoms if he had them, probably with enough time to diagnose. I also tend to think, based on your description of his passing, that it seems like something nobody could have predicted, and you are definitely not at fault. You gave Squeek 9 years of happiness, and saved his life, and obviously showed him a lot of love. I can't imagine how difficult this is for you, but I hope that soon you can let go of the guilt that you're feeling soon. I think it's only an indicator of your unconditional love for him that you feel this way at all. RIP sweet Squeek.

 

[di and bob]

If you find it in your heart to foster, even if for a little while, I can think of no better way to honor your little boy's memory. I wish you all the best in the future.

 

[Plumeria]

My heart breaks that you are going through this. Losing your baby suddenly and prematurely is traumatizing and very painful. I’m sure emotions are very raw right now, and will be for sometime. I can tell you and your husband loved Squeek very much and did everything you could to help him. His passing was sudden and I don’t think anything could have been done to save him. Sometimes that’s just how life is.

I lost my 9 year old boy, Leroy, to cancer 3 weeks ago. He underwent surgery and was put on a 25 week chemo protocol. He only survived 2 weeks of it. I am still in shock, cry a lot, and searching for that light at the end of the tunnel. I do exactly what you do...drive myself crazy going through things I might’ve done wrong, wanting to rewind time so I can have a do over, reading, searching, etc. Hopefully time will ease our intense grief.

Re: helping another, my husband suggested that we adopt a 9 or 10-year-old cat that has been abandoned and give him "the rest of life that Squeek never had." We'd like to do that but have thought the better of it now since we plan to live abroad for a year two years from now and will be taking our animals with us. We definitely want to do that someday. But I saw that a local rescue has been calling for kitten fosters so they can save more from death row at the local shelter. I think fostering would be the idea way for us to honor Squeek right now.

This was my wish too! I badly wanted to take in an abandoned middle aged cat from the shelter so we could comfort each other. However, my boyfriend who had grown up with dogs, wanted to adopt a younger cat 1 year old or less. We ended up with 2 kittens - 1 white male ragdoll and 1 black female DSH. They’re already inseparable and I feel blessed to have them. But....it is not the same. I miss my Leroy and our deep bond.

 

[RainyNightinGA]

Plumeria Thanks for your kind words about Squeek. My husband and I did love him very much and miss him immensely. Thank you for saying there's probably nothing anyone could have done. I do feel that's true, but it's also hard to accept right now. I think one day I will. You're right this is just how life is sometimes

I'm so sorry for the loss of your Leroy. I can tell you loved him very, very much. I'm happy that you adopted two kittens, though of course they don't replace Leroy and it is not the same. In time, I'm sure you'll develop a deep bond with these kittens and they will fill a different place in your heart. But Leroy will always have his place as well.

I have had a beloved dog die too young of cancer, so I know that it's a special kind of difficult. Please don't think that you did anything wrong. You got surgery for your cat and even put him on the chemo regimen recommended by your vet. You did so much to try to save him and give him the best quality of life. I hope you can take comfort in that. Wishing you healing and peace.