Looking for a reason my cat died.

Question
Last week, my beautiful male tabby cat, Jack died very suddenly and unexpectedly.  He was only 8 years old.  I found him at 4am in the morning as I was having trouble sleeping and came downstairs for some painkillers.  He was lying on our living room rug by the fireplace and it looked like he had been frothing at the mouth as there was a pool of dried saliva by him on the rug (maybe he had a seizure) and although he wasn't warm, he wasn't cold and stiff either so I don't think he had been dead very long.

About a metre from where he lay there was some vomit on the floor but there did not seem anything untoward in it, There appeared to be only partly digested cat biscuits present.

I had gone to bed at around 11 the previous evening and Jack had not been behaving any differently to normal, he had been playful, he had been seeking cuddles and he had been eating and drinking as normal.  At some point in the short time between my going to bed and finding him, something horrid happened to my beloved cat.  What is truly horrible is that I was awake from about 1am with a raging headache and I heard a noise which I thought came from outside the house.  It sounded like a cross between a wail and a whine and I put it down to being a fox in the garden.

I heard the same noise a couple more times before I eventually got up for some water and painkillers.  If only I had realised that the noise was coming from inside the house and that it was Jack that was making it.  Maybe I could have got him to the vets in time to change the end result......

I have been turning diagnoses over in my head but really can't come to any conclusion.  Bowel obstruction? Stroke? Aneurysm? I'm not convinced about hypertrophic cardiomyopathy..... Acute renal failure?  I just wish I had an answer..

I took Jack to the vets who gave him a trauma assessment and explained that there was no obvious cause of death  and advised that even if we had a necropsy we may not get an answer........

Any suggestions would be very helpful as I'm really struggling to come to terms with this.

Answer
Kathryn,

I am sorry for your loss!!!!!!!!!!

Remember, I am not a vet, but your post covered the "waterfront" on mysterious cat deaths.  Our experience has been that necropsies generally tell us very little about the root causes of death!!!!!!!

Furthermore, whatever noise Jack was making, I very much doubt that getting him to the vet would have made much difference in the long run.

I wish I could be of more help.

Sad regards... Norm