My family moved to this neighborhood about seven years ago, and in so doing inherited a group of three small feral kittens that seemed to arrive here about the same time. Once your kid's name them, you're fucked. You own em'. One of the other neighbors got them all fixed (ears tipped too) and my kids named them. Later I found out that other neighbors had different names for them, which cracks me up a little bit to this day, that these cats have other lives. Regardless, they live here.



We feed them every day. And provide (increasingly advanced) housing for them every winter. Most recently their houses included IP cameras, and remote temperature and humidity telemetry. There are also heat pads, which frankly weren't even needed last winter, as these little buggers heat the boxes quite well on their own. Two in one box will lift it ~30 degrees. One cat, about 15 degrees at least.



I've actually had several cameras on their camp, even capturing video of a bear that wandered into town a few springs ago. We've had other cats come and go. The neighbors had one put down that was sick. We put one down that came through and was badly injured and ill. And on a brighter note, we've gotten two adopted. The core trio of these cats have been here and stable for the duration. Two are totally feral, one will let you pet him.

The other day, I found one had passed away. The one on the right above. I was afraid it was injured and suffered, but upon reviewing the video of the area I found her in, I came to see that she appeared in pretty good shape until the moment of death. I might have noticed a few coughs from her earlier. But she walked about, hopped up on the ledge, trotted down it looking about. Hopped onto one of the cooler/houses. Hopped down from that to the patio. Then, suddenly, she laid down for a second or two, leaped into the air with a scream, flopped on the ground once. I noted a few more labored breaths and cat whimpers, and she was gone. Perhaps 20 seconds from appearing totally fine, until completely gone.

Anyway, I'm truly not looking for condolences or such. I'm fine. But I am immensely curious what could have killed her. And I am concerned as to whether I should get something done for the other two. I saw no signs of rabies. Though I haven't been able to get her to the vet ever. Only one has had some shots (the friendly one).

At some point could the cat have been bitten by a venomous snake?

quote:

Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
At some point could the cat have been bitten by a venomous snake?

I think was a bit too cold yet, in western PA. This was several weeks back. I didn't note any snakes in the video, and another cat came out seconds later. though perhaps it scattered when the cat flipped out. I think when the cat laid down, it was already in trouble. And that wasn't a panicked move. So I'm betting not.

I’m not a vet but coughing can be a heart issue which could also cause a sudden death.

Yes, most common cause of "feline sudden death" is cardiomyopathy (heart disease), specifically HCM, or Hyptertrophic Cardiomyopathy, thickening of the heart wall until it can no longer function.

I’ll second that coughing for a cat can be indicative of underlying heart condition. We had an orange tabby die suddenly and missed all the signs, and then adopted a a kitten that turned out to have an underlying heart condition. Unfortunately, the adopted kitten lived about 2 years even with us treating the condition with everything we could. There’s always a chance that some sort of a parasitic infection was present.

Feline distemper, HIV or leukemia? Common in ferals. As I understand it, these conditions display little or no visible symptoms and the animal seems fine, until it isn't.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: egregore,

I had a what I thought was a perfectly healthy cat die suddenly. Spouse insisted on a necropsy. The verdict was: sudden heart failure. Age was about 7 or so.
Vet at the time told me that cats can have heart attacks and strokes just like humans. Best way to avoid this was dont overfeed and let your cat get fat!

Even cats will have a heart attack or stroke.
I've seen it happen in parrots on a high seed/fat diet.

It's why all mine are on fruits/veggies and a pellet diet.

My Iris will be 46 this year.

This cat was certainly not fat. It ate a diet if Iams cat food, but again, it was extremely active and lived outside (in a shelter). It was wild and free. Save for a few tough weeks a year, it had a pretty great life. Winter sucks. I'm a little sad it didn't get to enjoy the summer it'd earned by surviving yet another winter.

Idk if this is related but. We had a Maine coon die suddenly after a bit of activity. Was obviously in great distress and we headed for a vet in the middle of a snowstorm.
Turns out likely an enlarged heart which caused sluggish blood flow. Created a clot which escaped the heart chamber and lodged in the great vessels in the saddle. Paralyzed the rear legs and apparently painful. Euthanized immediately on diagnosis of saddle embolism. Was not a pleasant experience.

Our beloved Mr. Kitty died 3 or 4 years ago in the same manner. He was up there in age, 15 or so years old. He was having health issues diagnosed as heart also. He wasn't going to the litter box so wife put preemie kid diapers on him with a hole cut for his tail and he didn't really care. One evening we are all gathered around the dinner table and he hops down from a chair near us, goes into the other room jumps up with a spasm and makes a cough noise and dies. We quickly said our goodbyes and after a couple of minutes there was some twitching and the kids started saying "he's coming back!" I had Mrs. Scuba hurry them upstairs, it was some sort of muscle dying twitch thing.

I took him out to the park behind our house and buried him the best I could in the winter but it wasn't deep enough. Coyotes dug him up and all that was left was a hole. That made me feel bad I didn't give him a permanent resting place. This year though the city dug that area up and put a sewer line it, so I guess it was a shitty situation all around...

I've had to bury more than my share of pets since my GF is a certified Cat Lady!

Next time, dig a hole about two or three feet deep, pour in a few inches of concrete, then place your buddy in and enough concrete to fill the rest of the hole.

If you smooth the concrete well enough, you can write a sentiment on it.

It will be about the saddest couple hours you can imagine, but it also affords some closure and security for the rest of time.

Some local funeral homes may carry plastic caskets for you.

Seems likely heart from the comments and prior diagnoses. I buried her in the woods. Seems undisturbed by the wildlife. Mostly deer and little critters about.