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Old January 19th, 2005, 02:40 AM
sunlight sunlight is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Ontario, Canada
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Exclamation Sudden Death - Fusi Never had a chance :(

Hi Everyone,
I'm sorry for posting this twice, but I read the "descriptive title" part for people searching, & I hope that it will provoke faster/more response.

I am writing this post in hopes of some sort of explanation as to why my 8 year old cat Fusi (or Foo Foo as we called her) died so suddenly last night.

We had Foo Foo since birth. My parents still have her mother. She was always an active loving and affectionate cat. We moved about a month ago, and had noticed the she had lost a lot of weight since we moved, but other than the weightloss, she was the same happy & affectionate cat as always. Always first to the dish when food was being put out. She ate 1/2-1 can/day as well as dry.... so we can't figure out why she was losing weight. She seemed to be fine... until yesterday.
When we got up in the morning, she was laying on the back of the couch, as usual, only she seemed rather ho-hum. She wasn't purring as she usually did when we rubbed her, and she hadn't been to the food dish yet. She had been coughing up (what appeared to be) liquidy hairballs - yellowish - in the night, & i figured maybe she had a touch of a cold/flu. By the time we got home that evening around 11:30pm, she was laying on a bed and appeared to be lethargic & breathing heavy. We took her to the emergency vet hospital at midnight. Her temperature & pulse & lungs appeared normal and she weighed in at 3.9kgs - not her normal 5-5.5kgs. He felt around her and seemed she had some sort of swelling behind the ribcage. Upon doing some xrays, there appeared to something that looked like it could be a growth in her abdomen.... all of her internal organs appeared normal in size, but for her bowels being slightly displaced due to what the vet called an "enlarged hepatic silhouette"... and "gastric". As he stood there going over the xrays, my husband read from his posture, mannerisms & repetitve (in)conclusions, that there was something he wasn't telling us. He spoke of doing some bloodwork, possible ultra sound or exploratory surgery for further information. He recommended to try giving her Pepcid 5mg (1/2 tablet) to see if that helped her, to monitor her eating/drinking/urination/bowel movements overnight, and to see the vet tomorrow. As it was already 2am, we figured we'd go with that and take her in again in the morning. $270 paid, we took Foo Foo home & gave her 1/2 tablet of Pepcid - with the awful feeling she wouldn't make it through the night.
For the next 2 hours we watched her - she struggled to move closer to us... moving only a couple inches before laying back down again - she had no strength. She wanted to be near us, but she didn't want to be touched. When she laid there on her side, she looked like she was struggling to breathe & as I watched her laying there on the floor... her mouth slightly open, she was unresponsive to her name, or any movement or sound around her, I knew she was leaving us. In tears, I watched her....
She coughed & gagged every couple mins for the next 10 mins.... and then, at 4am this morning, she was gone. I feel anger and frustration for a vet who seemed to know very little - or perhaps cared to share. To everyone around me, all it seemed he was concerned about was money. It all happened so suddenly... how did he not see this coming? I cannot afford for an autopsy, but I would really like to know what went wrong? I need answers please. Fusi never even had a chance....
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Old January 19th, 2005, 02:46 AM
Bugsy's Avatar
Bugsy Bugsy is offline
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I'm so very sorry for your loss :sad:
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Old January 19th, 2005, 08:47 AM
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raingirl raingirl is offline
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I'm so sorry you lost your cat

Sounds to me, based on what you have said that the vet said that maybe it was cancer?? That would explain the weight loss especially if it was a tumor anywhere in the digestive track (stomach or colon).

The other thing could have been a tyroid disorder. the Thyroid regulates metabolism, and it it was completly out of whack, then the who digestive system, and technically the whole abdomen could be swollen due to not enough hormone to metabolize food. That would also explain the weight loss.

Also could have been diabetes, as it has similar symptoms thyroid problems, and maybe it was the pancreas that was enlarged in the xray, as the pancreas (I think) is responsible for insulin production??

I'm no doctor, and these are just guesses. Was your cat drinking more water than usual in the last few months?
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Old January 19th, 2005, 09:47 AM
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chico2 chico2 is offline
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Location: Oakville Ontario
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Sunlight,what a terrible experience both for you and poor Fusi :sad: I symphatize... :love:
I once had a diabetic cat,who was pts at 17yrs old.He started to lose weight rapidly and we found a huge growth in his chest-area,my vet never suggested exploratory surgery or any treatment,we just saw the x-ray and were told by our very caring vet,she's 99,9% sure it's cancer...no cure :sad: Peppi was spared any more suffering and pts while in my arms.
I am not saying what your vet did was wrong,but he probably knew your Fusi would not make it,I wish he would have been more forthcoming,but it's all water under the bridge now,RIP Fusi :love:
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