One of our shelter cats died

My supervisor took home a cat that came in the other day and she died last night. When she came in she was so weak she could barely eat and was so boney at first we thought she was deformed (long haired, so we could see just how skinny she was untill picking her up) Her ears were also very frostbitten, so they were hard and may have lost them if she did live. So my question is do you think she just died from starvation, or do you think she had some thing wrong to cause her to be that skinny? She has other cats and is concerned about feline aids, or some thing like that. That cat was having seziures before it died and a few dieses cause seziures and her eyes were like pin drops then she had a seziure again and her eyes were all diatated and she died.
I think the sezuires were more like convoutions (from what she told me, I wasn't there) and it was her body dying or sezuires from dying, but we aren't sure.
The shelter won't pay for a necropsy, im sure, but she did have feces that we think should still be tested, but other then that we arn't sure if she has to worry about her cats. (our manager is gone for two weeks)
Any advice or thoughts?

Do you still have access to the cat's body? If so, you wouldn't have to do a full necropsy, just run a regular FeLV/FIV test. Shouldn't be more than $40 or so, less if the shelter buys the tests in bulk and you can get one of those.

How much contact did her cats have with the sick kitty? Poor thing.

Originally Posted by Willowy

Do you still have access to the cat's body? If so, you wouldn't have to do a full necropsy, just run a regular FeLV/FIV test. Shouldn't be more than $40 or so, less if the shelter buys the tests in bulk and you can get one of those.

How much contact did her cats have with the sick kitty? Poor thing.

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She still has it, didn't feel safe to bury it, of course. She has to bring it to the vet monday. Can they still do the FeLV/FIV tests done after deing deceased for a day?

She had no contact with her other cats, seperate room dishes, box, ect. no one else went in but her. she bagged and through every thing out and the room is still shut off from her cats, but if it did have some thing, couldn't she carry it out even on her shoes?

Leukemia and FIV can only be spread by a healthy cat having direct contact with the infected cat. The main concern of something that is contagious enough that we can spread it from a sick to a healthy cat on our clothes or hands would be distemper. I don't know if they can tell after death without a necropsy. This poor cat may have been in the process of dying from starvation and exposure when it came in rather than some type of disease.

Many cats that come in half starved have irreparable internal organ damage - starvation can kill a kitties kidneys, etc.

The necropsy is best done within 24 hours of death. I dont know what they charge for one on a kitten, but I have had enough done on rats..to the tune of 175.00 each.

Poor kitten..RIP

Originally Posted by white cat lover

Many cats that come in half starved have irreparable internal organ damage - starvation can kill a kitties kidneys, etc.

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I am hoping that this is why she died. But, she was concerned that she may have been so skinny because she was sick, and that caused her weight lose, but judging by the frost bite on the ears and body/coat condition, I am assuming she just starved and she was just too far gone (kidnys failing, ect) for us to save her.

I haven't talked to her, but due to shelter being remodled and the manager gone on vacation for 2 weeks, I don't think she could be o.k'ed to do the necropsy.

poor baby, we tried