Hello, my username is in honor of Sammy, a cat I had who was a great friend and passed away too soon. He would have been 12 years old this month; what happened 3 weeks ago was he was going about his normal day, slept with me on the bed the night before and woke me up asking for food, then he was sitting in one of his favorite spots in the living room when suddenly I saw him hyperventalating, when I ran over to him he suddenly collapsed and stopped breathing. I called the vet I took him too and they told me to bring him over, but he was already gone when we got there.
I know nothing I do will bring him back, but I'm rather upset that this happened when less than 2 weeks ago, he had a routine check-up and I was told everything was pretty much OK, and he had been acting normal up to when he died. (At his last appointment I even picked up a brochure outlining common signs of cat sickness; I reviewed it after he died and he showed none of the signs listed.) The year before they detected kidney disease, which scared me but feeding him prescription food seemed to help; after he had been eating that for a while the vet said his kidney levels had improved (I don't know much of the scientific parts, so I just have to go by what they said.) They had also said he was obese, and I started measuring his food intake and he had started to lose some weight. There were no other health problems that I know about, and he acted very happy, affectionate and playful. The vet said it might have been a heart attack, or he might have ingested something he shouldn't have (he was an indoor cat, and I searched afterwards for anything hazardous he might have gotten into and could find none; he wasn't one to randomly eat strange things). I can't help but wonder what might have happened, so if anyone here has any ideas please share them.
Sammy was a very important part of my life, and I'll always be sad how he left so suddenly and unexpectedly, but yesterday I brought home two new kittens who desperately needed a good home, and I'll be watching this board for tips on how to raise them properly. This is my first time having two cats at once, so there's a few new things I'll have to learn and it should be fun.
I know nothing I do will bring him back, but I'm rather upset that this happened when less than 2 weeks ago, he had a routine check-up and I was told everything was pretty much OK, and he had been acting normal up to when he died. (At his last appointment I even picked up a brochure outlining common signs of cat sickness; I reviewed it after he died and he showed none of the signs listed.) The year before they detected kidney disease, which scared me but feeding him prescription food seemed to help; after he had been eating that for a while the vet said his kidney levels had improved (I don't know much of the scientific parts, so I just have to go by what they said.) They had also said he was obese, and I started measuring his food intake and he had started to lose some weight. There were no other health problems that I know about, and he acted very happy, affectionate and playful. The vet said it might have been a heart attack, or he might have ingested something he shouldn't have (he was an indoor cat, and I searched afterwards for anything hazardous he might have gotten into and could find none; he wasn't one to randomly eat strange things). I can't help but wonder what might have happened, so if anyone here has any ideas please share them.
Sammy was a very important part of my life, and I'll always be sad how he left so suddenly and unexpectedly, but yesterday I brought home two new kittens who desperately needed a good home, and I'll be watching this board for tips on how to raise them properly. This is my first time having two cats at once, so there's a few new things I'll have to learn and it should be fun.
