Has anyone had experience with anything like this?

cobweb

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I'll get right to it: My favorite furrball passed away yesterday. The cause began Friday evening, but no veterinarians were open. Saturday they were booked full, and Sunday it was too late. (We have an "Emergency Vet" here but the price starts at $150 just for the exam and estimate) I am so heartbroken that I think I'm becoming an atheist. I don't remember ever crying so much; but that's not the point of my coming here.

I'd like to know if anyone has ever seen anything like what took her, so I can prevent it from ever happening again, if possible.

Friday evening she was having trouble breathing. I found that putting a fan right in front of her helped but didn't alleviate it. Over night we put her in a carrier with the fan right in front of it. Sunday she began choking and couldn't breath at all then died within about 20 minutes. Her great gandfather died from conjestive heart failure at thirteen, and she was acting *just like him*, except that he spent more than a week with labored breathing before it was obviously time to help him pass; whereas she was gone in less than 48 hours. And she was only three years old.

I don't think it was asthma, because asthma attacks pass, don't they? This lingered on through two nights. I'm leaning towards a heart defect. Of course I could have her autopsied, but I really don't think it was any kind of poison; and if it was a heart defect, what good would that do? (Except extend my grief)

She had no previous symptoms. She was overweight a bit, but by no means obese. We live in a ninety year old house we're buying, but there's no insulation so certainly no asbestos. She wasn't one to try to eat things she shouldn't, like say paint or plastic. She spent most of her time sitting in the windows watching the birds and pedestrians.

She was one of three kittens (her brother and sister are still with us) born three years ago from an accidental union of her mother and her maternal grandfather. (I thought he was too old to have any interest. Yeah right) Both were polydactyl but otherwise normal. Of the three kittens, the one male looks almost identical to his mother and seems perfectly normal, but the two girls (one now gone) have the features of persians. There is no persian in the family history to my knowledge, so I assumed this to be a mutation from inbreeding. Nonetheless they are/were adorable. Their mother and father each had/have (Grampa Dad passed away peacefully last year) one extra toe to each foot. The kittens had/have two and three extras per foot. (The remaining girl has a total of 28 toes.)

Her name was Luna. Sad doesn't even begin to cover it.
A picture of her from June:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/219/lunafe.jpg/
I will never forget you or cease to love you, as long as I live.
 

gailc

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While I have no ideas on your kitties death I am very sorry to read of your loss. With it being so sudden its very hard to except.
 
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