What happened to my poor cat?

edward2017

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Hello,
My 8 year old relatively healthy cat ( he had previously had all of his teeth removed due to severe decay, urinary crystals controlled with diet and some sort of hepatic lipidosis though he was not overweight) passed away yesterday extremely unexpectedly. He was a 'foster failure' who I adopted at 4 years of age.
Around 830pm February 14th he projectile vomited clear bile and a small clump of hair. He started howling and ran downstairs to the basement. I knew something was wrong, I followed him and he continued to run away from me. He ran upstairs to our bedroom and was laying on his side, pulling his hind legs up and crying in pain. His respiratory rate was high and a bit labored. I assumed he had a urinary blockage and took him to our local ER vet.
She examined him, bladder was normal. He projectile vomited foam twice immediately after she palpated his abdomen. She said he was very painful (obviously) and she thought he might have an intestinal blockage. He was laying on the exam table and trying to hide, very unlike him as he was always very outgoing when at the vets. They took him for abdominal X-rays which showed nothing, the radiologist said MAYBE pancreatitis or peritoneal effusion was in the early stages. I am a vet tech, so I told her at the beginning that if she felt he was stable and not critical I would follow up and do an extensive work up the next morning when I went to work. He was given cerenia, Pepcid and buprenorphine and sent home with me. I administered SQ fluids when I got home at midnight. He was drooling excessively, but he seemed more comfortable and his respiratory rate had decreased, I figured he was feeling quite woozy from the medication. He bolted from me immediately after and wedged himself underneath my basement stairs. I could not reach him to get him out. I checked on him at 1am and went to bed.
I got up to put him in the carrier to go to work with me at 7am, he was dead on my cold basement floor. I am devastated and don't know what happened to him. He had been 100% himself the day before, eating great and following my kids around like he always did. That day, he ate in the morning and was comfortably sleeping on my daughters bed.
I asked the veterinarian who sees my pets to do a quick necropsy, she found nothing abnormal in his abdominal area. She said maybe it could have been a cardiac event.

I was hoping someone here could shed some light onto what happened to my wonderful boy.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Hos devastating!  I'm so sorry for your loss, especially in that manner
.  I have no idea what may have happened.  I guess you may have to go with your Vet's best guess here.

Again, my sympathy.
 
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edward2017

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I dont believe it was a toxin, I guess. I feel like anything is some how possible because I desperately want to have an answer as to why this happened.
I have searched my house 3 times looking for anything he could have gotten into. He absolutely never went outside, we do not have plants and he was not the type of cat to eat things, but he loved water and drinking from the sink. I could find no spills or open containers anywhere. He had no lesions/ulcers in his mouth that would suggest a chemical irritant.

I cannot help feeling like I should have trusted my gut and pushed the ER vet to do more testing, perhaps they would have at least deemed him critical then and maybe he would have had a chance at surviving whatever this was. I told my husband before I brought him to the Vet that I was afraid he was going to die. And that again, I should've trusted my gut and gotten up to check on him and at least he wouldn't have died in my basement alone - I will forever regret this.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Try not to beat yourself up about this
.   You said he wedged himself under the stairs where you couldn't get to him, so even if you'd gotten up to check on him, you might not have been able to get to him later on either. 

I know it's a horrible thing...on of my dogs died of a heart attack in the middle of the night with no warning.

Again, my deepest sympathy.  Life is SO uncertain
 
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edward2017

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Thank you both for your kind words.I have never had a cat or dog die so unexpectedly at such a young age. All of my cats have lived well into their teens, so I'm finding it very difficult to just accept this and move on without any answers.
 
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