Feline Health

Question
My daughter's 4yr old cat just jumped up on the bed, screeched and died.  He was a healthy cat with no health problems that I knew of.  What would have caused this to happen?

Answer
Hi Michael,

Sorry to hear this.  It's impossible to say for sure what the cause of this kitty's death is, but sudden deaths in healthy cats are usually brought on by heart problems.  In most cases, it's caused by a severely irregular heartbeat, or cardiac arrhythmia.

Heart problems are common in cats, but unfortunately, because they do not tend to cause outward symptoms, they usually go undiagnosed.  Many cats die from the condition without ever being diagnosed, or some cats are diagnosed once they go into a crisis.  A large portion of the kitties affected are born with heart defects and will suffer from heart disease early in life.  

The most common type of heart disease in cats is Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, which is a thickening of the heart muscles in the left ventricle in most cases.  This chamber becomes unable to pump to its full extent, and it causes problems in a few ways.  One is that some old blood can collect in the ventricle and become stagnant, forming clots.  The clots can later break free and get lodged in arteries, causing serious pain and health problems, but rarely instant death like you saw.  The second is Congestive Heart Failure, where fluid will surround the heart.  This leads to breathing problems, and most cats will be very ill - most cats see the vet and are diagnosed with heart problems at this point.  The third is cardiac arrhythmia.  This is silent and can go on for years without symptoms.  Unless the vet detects it on an exam, there are usually no signs anything is wrong.  The arrhythmia gets worse over time until the heart literally stops.

My only other suspicion might be that he could have had a urinary tract blockage if you can't be sure that he had been urinating normally for the last 24-48 hours.  Male cats can easily develop total urinary tract obstructions due to crystals or stones in the urine, or to blood or mucus clots from a urinary tract infection.  If they don't urinate for more than 24 hours, it can soon be deadly.  In some cases, the bladder literally bursts.  These deaths don't tend to be as quick as cardiac arrests, however.

If you haven't buried the kitty yet, your local vet can do a necropsy (animal autopsy) to try to determine the actual cause of death.

I'm sorry for your loss.

Jessica