Internal Bleeding

Question
My cat's body was filled with fluid.  After putting her down, the Vet determined that the fluid was blood.  What disease would cause internal bleeding in an elderly cat?  Would the cat be anemic because of the internal bleeding?

Answer
Cindy,

Wow, what an awful thing to have learned!  Internal bleeding can be a result of any number of things.  It could have occured secondary to trauma of some kind (if it was an outdoor cat, and someone abused it while it was out, or was hit by a car); a bleeding ulcer which perforated; any number of diseasese, both hereditary and new onset, that could have either caused bleeding or a side effect of the illness was bleeding; a ruptured aorta, or any bleeding aorta, (or any major artery/vessel for that matter)---any number of things could have caused internal bleeding.  Just about every system in the body can cause bleeding if there's something wrong with that system or there's been trauma to it---GI, urinary/renal, cardiac, respiratory, ortho (if the cat had a broken bone somewhere that eventually bled out--it's possible that the bleeding was going on very slowly for yrs, and the cat was always asymptomatic until the end).  And absolutely, any cat that has internal bleeding going on will be anemic if they're losing enough blood, and quickly.  

Hope this helps.  

Savannah