4y/o Manx random death

Hello,

      I am reaching out to ask about my cat who recently passed away unexpectedly. I am hoping to find answers so I can understand what happened to him. We got him when he was around 1 y/o from an abusive household, and raised and smothered him with love since then, until he passed away 2 nights ago at almost 4y/o. He was neutered, had all his shots, and was very healthy (or so we thought). The night before he was playing and being himself, and we found him the next day in the spot he sleeps every night. He was in a sleeping position and seemed as though he passed away in his sleep, but it was so unexpected and devastating. I have read a little bit about Manx syndrome and I am wondering if he may have had it since he died at such a young age. The only thing odd about him was he would leave little random turds around the house sometimes, which I thought were just getting stuck to his butt hair and falling off later. And when he would eat or drink he would sometimes spread his rear legs far apart when standing. He also sometimes ran like a rabbit but I attributed all of this to him being a Manx. He had a little stub for a tail at best, so not a true rumpy but pretty close. I am in medical school so if people want to get into physiology or genetic details for a response I should be able to understand the answer. Thank you to whoever takes the time to read this and I hope someone can help me find closure in his death. He was the greatest son I could have asked for and an amazing stress relief for school. He will be forever missed.

-T

View media item 336794

I am so sorry.

It does sound like he may have had some degree of Manx Syndrome because of his bowel movements.  I hadn't heard of it causing death though even in kitties that have it much worse then he did.  We have had kitties here where people have devised systems using a baby onsie because they are incontinent.

I have no idea what caused this.  Usually sudden death in a young kitty is something with the heart but without a necropsy there really isn't any way of knowing.

Thank you for the reply Denice. I should clarify with the bowel movement though. He never had diarrhea or constipation and always used the litter box. He never once urinated outside the litter box and maybe once a week we just have the little turd next to the cat box or somewhere in the house which I thought was because of his butt here. I do not know much about manx syndrome so I am not sure if he had it or not I guess. Not knowing sometimes just seems to make it worse because you don't know how you could have prevented it then.

hi and i'm so sorry for your loss.

One cause of sudden death is HCM, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy which can go undetected when a  cat has it without a heart murmur (like mine did).  Sometimes the result is a blood clot that causes rear leg paralysis but other times the cat just suddenly dies.  In my personal experience HCM is the most common cause of sudden death in cats and it is not uncommon in 4-5 year old cats. See http://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/cardiovascular/c_ct_cardiomyopathy_hypertrophic

I'm so sorry for your loss.    He was a very beautiful boy.