Sorry for the somewhat sad posting, but I've been a part of this community for years (despite not having a very good track record) and wanted to vent.
Sadly, my two year old cat passed away today. What happened is that a few days ago she suddenly fell very ill. She refused to eat or drink water, constantly heaved and was breathing heavily, and was very lethargic. I immediately took her to the vet to find out what the deal was. Upon examination nothing seemed to be wrong with her, nothing was stuck in her throat, no obvious lumps or tender areas on her body. The vet concluded they needed X-rays to figure out more of what the problem was. They took them, and they found that my cats lower intestine was swollen and covered in a mucus(?) produced by a sort-of organ cats have. This occurs when the intestines are inflamed. Nothing obvious was clear on the X-ray, as in no foreign object could be detected, so they figured that she swallowed something such as string. Given the dire situation and the fact she wouldn't eat or drink water, we had only one choice; they had to do an exploratory surgery on her lower intestine and find if anything was there, and if so, remove it.
Long story short, they completed the surgery and told us it was a success. They did not find an object, but however found that her entrails were very inflamed and even bloody/raw in some parts. They concluded that this was inflammatory bowel disease, and the plan was the next day (3/19/20) I go pick her up, and start her on meds that induce appetite and meds for pain. Then 10 days later after she'd recovered a bit from the surgery, start her medicine for treating the disease.
The 19th came, and I woke up to an early morning phone call to be presented with a shock. My cat passed away in the middle of the night while sleeping. The surgeon himself was extremely shocked, given her age and no underlying health conditions she was an extremely low risk patient. They said they'd conduct a biopsy to find a definitive cause of death. They conducted the biopsy, and the surgeon believes her death was caused by a very rare but albeit possible negative reaction to the anesthesia. He noted that she was not recovering from the anesthesia that well despite being given a stimulant. They think the anesthesia caused an aryythmia and furthermore, heart failure while she was sleeping. This is rare, but it's not out of the realm of possibility. Like I said the surgeon and staff alike were stunned and seemed pretty depressed about all of this. As am I. I skipped work today and told them what happened, and even now am extremely shocked/sad.
I just wanted to vent, because I'm not sure what else to do right now with myself lol... I owe a ton of money for this surgery now, and am left without my cat. She was so young, and this was all so sudden that it just is kind of mind boggling I guess. Thanks to anyone who cared to read.
