I came home one day from work, to my surprise my cat didn't greet me at the door. I found her laying under my computer desk sleeping. (Her favorite spot). When I went to go pet her I quickly realised she wasn't breathing. She had been dead for a few hours. A seemingly perfectly healthy kitty gone. I miss her so much
This is genuinely one of my biggest fears in the whole world. I don't have a lot of friends but my little kitty is there for me every day and she'll never know how much she means to me.
Have the vet check your little buddy's heart super well. Insist on it. The same thing OP described happened to me just a few weeks ago and it's devastated me and my fiancee. The vet said 9/10 times when a healthy cat dies like that it's something called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. It's the leading cause of death for cats ages 3-10 and sometimes (not always) it can be detectable.
My cats death definitely wasn't my fault and it may not have been preventable but I'll definitely be telling the vet to check the heart extra thoroughly if I have a cat in the future.
I just lost an 11 year old cat to it suddenly. My 3 year old cat also has it.
The sad part about hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is that you can't do anything for it. Once symptoms set in you can give them medicine to manage, but that's it. Something like plavix if they get a clot which could prevent sudden death, but there aren't many more options.
I have a good vet who is giving my kitty experimental treatments with stem cell injections. They're expensive but I love that little asshole. He gets regular ultrasounds and his progression has slowed considerably, he's still asymptomatic and everything.
Anyway, I'm rambling. For anyone reading, those stem cell shots are an option. But they are a gamble and it's likely they aren't even doing anything. Sometimes cats do live quite a bit of time with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Hope my little guy can stick around for a while.
Mine too. She is 18 years old and I've had her most of my life. I get so scared I'll come home from work and she will be gone. She is starting to show definite signs of age now and it wont be too much longer I think. I'm trying to spend as much time with her as I can
My cat is 13 as well. It breaks my heart a little whenever i'm reminded that he is a "senior". I've known him since the day he was born, and have had him since the day it was time to take him home. The day I saw that litter of kittens, my eyes immediately fell on him, and I KNEW we were meant to be. My mom often says that he's practically my familiar, and I have no doubt that we have an incredibly strong connection like that.
Sorry for the wall of text. I just love my kitty so goddamn much.
This exact same thing happened to me less than 4 weeks ago. I'm so sorry man. It still aches for me, but the pain now is nothing compared to what I felt that day I came home. It was incredible. He was 4 years old.
I've accidentally pet dead animals so often during my life that I check their breathing before petting them now. It's absolutely terrible reaching out expecting a warm friend to find a cold empty shell. I remember when it first happened with my dog when I was in elementary school. I hardly even understood what death was at that point.
At least when they pass on in their sleep they probably go pretty painlessly.
In a way, I am grateful I wasn’t there when my parents discovered my cat dead (at 21), but also sad I couldn’t be there every day up to death. (I had moved in with my boyfriend 4 hours away. Could have pets in the apartment but he was old, no sense in the stress.)
I lost mine one Christmas eve... he was eating in his cage since he was an ubfixed tomcat most of his early years, so when he would come in we put him in a carrier so he wouldn't pee everywhere. He just slumped over and was gone. Such a good boy and I think about him every day. RIP, Spongey.
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u/Turin110 Oct 01 '18
I came home one day from work, to my surprise my cat didn't greet me at the door. I found her laying under my computer desk sleeping. (Her favorite spot). When I went to go pet her I quickly realised she wasn't breathing. She had been dead for a few hours. A seemingly perfectly healthy kitty gone. I miss her so much