2 year old cat died suddenly

Hi everyone,

 Our family cat, who was just a little over 2 years old died suddenly yesterday.

He was an orange tabby that was so full of life & personality. Needless to say, our family is heartbroken. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about what possibly could've happened to him? He LOVED to spend time outdoors, so although we were nervous about him getting injured, he was a persistent little guy and would yeowl constantly and very loud until we let him out.

He developed a pattern. He would go out at night & greet us on the porch in the morning, waiting to be fed. He would stay inside the house 'til we got home from work, eat, then go outside again.

My husband found him in our backyard. His eyes were open. We had saliva on the side of his mouth. We do not think he had been gone very long because he was not too stiff or cold. We have NO idea what happened! He was playing and acting completely normal the evening before. We last saw him around 11:30 p.m. We are so upset. We called the vet and she said it could've been a number of things. Heart disease, hit by a car, etc. We thought maybe he was poisoned but the vet thinks he would have been showing signs of illness before he died.

Can anyone please help? I know I will never know exactly what happened, but the thoughts of him suffering are driving me crazy. I'm sorry to go on and on but we have cried buckets the last 2 days & we just can't imagine life without him. I feel so guilty for not keeping him safe. He was only 2 years old. I know we couldn't have loved him more, but it's agony knowing his lifetime was so short.

~Missing our baby

My deepest condolences to you and your family . I know I would be a wreck if this happened to me, you are very strong and your cat was lucky to have you!

Where do you live - in an urban, suburban or rural area? I knew someone with a cat who ate raccoon poison once and was found dead outside under one of their flower bushes.

Since he seemed perfectly fine until he died, there's a good chance something outside may have been the culprit. If you found saliva on the side of his mouth (its possible he could have foamed at the mouth or vomited before he came inside) so I'm thinking he may have ingested something he shouldn't have such as pesticides (weed killers) or animal poison. Outside of human poisons, there are poisonous plants, snakes, spiders, etc. But for a cat to encounter something and die so quickly, means he must have encountered a large dosage if he did ingest it.

You could always look into getting an autopsy done to try and figure out the cause if its practical and your comfortable with it.

Kind regards to you and your family.

I am so sorry for the loss of your kitty.  It sounds like he was loved very much.  That is the best gift you could give him.  {{{HUGS}}} to you and your family.

I'm so sorry about your loss. 

I understand about wanting to let your cats enjoy the outdoors. I try to mitigate problems by only letting my cats out during the day. It also helps that we live in a quiet little closed off residential neighborhood where cars must go slow.

From my research, the most common causes of sudden death in otherwise healthy seeming cats are:

Internal injury (hemorrhage) from being struck by a car.

Poisoning either directly (eating poison) or indirectly (eating prey that ate poison).

Heart problem either congenital (such as cardiomyopathy) or from heart worms.

I don't think anything can be concluded from the saliva on the side of the cat's mouth.

I'd bet it was a heart problem - if so your cat did not suffer and died quiete suddenly and there was not much of anything you could have done about it.

I am so very sorry for your loss too! I also agree it would have had to be something like hit by a car or ingested something toxic, given it happened very quickly. 

I have two outdoor feral kitties and I go into a panic whenever I cannot locate one of them. I know if this happened to me I would be in agony too. You and your little boy are in my thoughts and prayers. The info below is for you, if you decide to adopt another kitty- 

Cats are like toddlers, they really don't have natural abilities outside and they will, like a toddler, cross the street in traffic or eat something that looks good. Plus, even though it looks to us like there isn't anything else outdoors, territory is carefully staked out and "owned" by other animals- cats, raccoons, etc. If you are contemplating getting another cat, I would suggest as the other poster did, that you only let your kitty out during the daytime and never at night because that is when most predators- human or not- are outside. Also contrary to common belief, it is better if your kitty is spayed/neutered, that will make them less inclined to roam or take on other cats.

I have two outdoor ferals and some of the things I have done to keep them safe is a) make them a home outside, we put up a playhouse so they can be up high and we made them cat beds on our deck- they have taken over our gazebo lol; b) put a baby monitor in the back yard where they stay so we can hear at night if there is any problem; c) develop some specific things to call them whenever we need to see them (clang the food bowls, use the garage door opener). d) develop a strict routine with your kitty so that they know to show up and you see them several times a day. Still, my kitties have had occasional injuries and have had to go to the vet. I feel very lucky so far that it has not been worse. But we have gone to great lengths to keep them very close to home. Sadly, unneutered kitties (i don't know if this includes your kitty but just FYI) do mark and a lot of neighbors can be extremely intolerant of that. So if you get another kitty, it would be good to talk to your neighbors and tell them to let you know if your kitty is any problem to them, as well as do the spay/neuter and give them the incentives to stay close to home.

Thank you for the kind and thoughtful responses.

We live in a small residential town. I should have gone with instincts to not let him outside. I just always felt to so bad every time he cried.

My little guy was neutered. I didn't mean to suggest he wanted out at night to prowl for female cats. I guess I just reasoned he liked it out

at night better because it was quiter? I have no idea. He loved being outside.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond. It's comforting to know people understand our loss.

~Kitty's Mama

I am very, very sorry for your sudden loss and the shock of it It is really hard to say what it was, although I suspect he ate something that was poisonous since there was saliva/foam in the mouth. I know your heart is broken and I am so very sorry. My deepest condolences for you and your family.

I'm so sorry for your loss. But I don't think that it was an intoxication, I think it sounds mostly like a heart attack. Maybe he had an unknown cardiac defect.

I don't think that he had to suffer very much.

Anyway, now he is in the land over the rainbow and has no pains and nothing that can hurt him. Good journey little boy.  

I am just writing again to say how sorry I am about your little boy. I know how hard it is to lose a beloved pet. And I know too how much they want to go outside. 

We used to let our first cat outside when we lived in a house that had an enclosed back yard. Sure enough she climbed the fence even though we adopted her at age 12 and she only had one eye and was not at all active. Grammy had to explore - sigh. And wouldn't you know a week later we saw that she licked a patch of her fur off and there was a bite there. We took her to the vet who said it was probably another cat. We felt so awful. 

After that we STILL let our cats outside, at our new home in the same neighborhood- like yours, small residential area- but we only let them out when we were there to supervise. Sure enough, my Toby ran away even though we were outside with him, saw him run, and lost him. He was gone for two days. It turned out he had run into the neighbor's garage and gotten stuck in there. They thought he was a raccoon and had put a trap in there with poison in it- lucky for us he did not eat it. I had gone door to door with fliers but they didn't get their mail right away or open their front door.

After that close call, it was the end of our kitties' outside days. 

Now I know that even though they love the outside, it just isn't safe for them. We were lucky none of our cats died because they could have easily gotten hit by a car, poisoned, anything. Now we open the windows for them to watch the butterflies and squirrels and birdies outside and they really enjoy it. And I have learned too that if I never let them out, they won't know what they are missing. 

You did what you thought was the right thing for your boy, you wanted him to be happy, and it sounds like he had a wonderful life where he was loved very much.   I am so sorry he is gone, but know that you loved him and were a good mom to him. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

I am so sorry you lost you sweet little boy so suddenly. It is so heartbreaking.

The same thing happened to an older cat we had about 15 yrs ago, she was fine, acting normal, ate her breakfast and a few hours later she had seizures and died, we thought it may have been her heart but we couldn't afford a necropsy.

Sometimes cats are born with conditions we don't know about until it's too late, unfortunately. And it's no one's fault.

  Hugs to you.
 

Thanks again everyone; especially Suni & Stormy

I went back & forth about letting him outside; I even talked to his vet about it. He had a urinary blockage last year & the vet thinks it was caused by stress.

I knew there was many, many dangers with letting him roam outside, but I told myself the quality of his life was the most important thing. (I still absolutely believe that!)

Of course, it's easy for me to second guess my decision now that my sweet little guy is gone. I pray his passing was quick & he didn't suffer. I wish I could've been there to comfort him.

I know there are angels among us, because I truly feel that each person on this site who took the time to respond was God's way of letting me know there are people who care &

it means everything to me.

Blessings to each of you