Expert: Tina - 11/29/2007

Question
hello.  my cat was 5 yrs hold and it passed away suddenly, they did an autopsy and said everything was 100% fine with him.  is it possible that he could of had a brain aneurysm and we did not know about it? and if so how could have we noticed it cause we have two other cats that same age.  thanks

Answer
Jason,

I am very very sorry to hear about the sudden death of your cat. Yes, it is possible that an aneurysm, heart arrhythmia or similar acute medical problem was responsible for your cats' death. If that was the case, there is absolutely nothing that you could have done to notice or prevent your cats' death, but on the positive side it is not something that could affect your other 2 cats.

If your cats go outside, consider keeping your other 2 cats indoors, because an injury from a glancing blow by a car, ingested poison, and many other possible dangers may have contributed to your cats' death.

Unfortunately it can be very hard to tell after the fact what caused your cats' death, but it may be a good idea to get a thorough vet exam and complete blood panel run on your other 2 cats to check for kidney or liver problems, heart problems, etc because of all the recent cat food recalls, just as a precaution.

On a side note, if you feed commercial cat food, you might want to consider other options, here is some information on feline nutrition for you:

http://www.catinfo.org

http//www.catnutrition.org

http://www.felinefuture.com

http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm