Question of a cat death and dealing with the other cat.

Lucreto

I had 2 cats and one died Saturday afternoon out of nowhere.

He was playing as normal then I let him out as 11am. I get a knock on the door around 2pm from a neighbour saying my cat was laying under another neighbours car. I went to investigate and it was my poor cat. It's mouth was wide open and so was his eyes other than that no marks on his body. My vet is closed all weekend so I had to keep the body cold until monday afternoon. He is undergoing a post mortum as we speak and I am sitting here waiting for results.

We showed the other cat the body and took no interest in it but now is displaying odd behavour. She was always a clingy cat but now she is more so. She sleeps on my bed all afternoon and on my lap until bedtime. I lock her in a room for the night but since the other cat is gone she just sits and meows for hours at the door. We are trying to keep the old routine going and to get her used to the new arrangement instead of creating bad habits now.

The odd thing now as well she refuses to leave the house. I leave the door open and usually she woud be gone in seconds but usually back in about 10-20 minutes. She runs the opposite direction now. I was out doing the bins and she followed me out but didn't stray too far. She ate a bit of grass and I slowly snuck inside. It took a second for her to realise I was gone and went into what looked like a panic attack. Sideways jumping and random looking around. I opened the door and she ran in. I got a verbal spanking from her after.

I am off this week but I am back to work next week and I am a bit afraid to leave her alone for long. I have stuff to do tomorrow so I can test to see how she will react.

Does anyone have any idea what could have caused the death and any advice about the other cat.

Pumpkinseeds

I'm very sorry to hear about your cat. There are some good online articles on grieving animals and how to help them. My brother had a young cat that was hit by a car years ago and he didn't have a mark on him either. If he hadn't found him on the road he'd never have known what happened. Strange, I know. I don't know what the exact symptoms are of anti-freeze poisoning but it seems to be becoming more common these days.

You could try getting some Zylkene tablets from your vet for the anxiety in your cat. I use Royal canin Calm dry food for our cats and I find it amazing. I'd say your cat is going to need a lot of reassurance, they hate any kind of change in their lives, they are creatures of habit.

Lucreto

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

I'm very sorry to hear about your cat. There are some good online articles on grieving animals and how to help them. My brother had a young cat that was hit by a car years ago and he didn't have a mark on him either. If he hadn't found him on the road he'd never have known what happened. Strange, I know. I don't know what the exact symptoms are of anti-freeze poisoning but it seems to be becoming more common these days.

You could try getting some Zylkene tablets from your vet for the anxiety in your cat. I use Royal canin Calm dry food for our cats and I find it amazing. I'd say your cat is going to need a lot of reassurance, they hate any kind of change in their lives, they are creatures of habit.

I have to wait to see what the vet says before I can do anything. As I said I have to do stuff tomorrow so I can see how she reacts to an extended period of being alone.

I have my own theorys on the death.

1. He has a condition when it was a kitten where is would breath really fast after a scare but that went away as he got older but it might have come back with a vengence. He was 6 years old.

2. His heart could have gave out. It can be linked to above if he got a scare. He was the runt of the litter and the mother would carry him everywhere.

3. He was hit by a car. The car he was found behind was a neighbour with a history of running over animals. Another neighbours dog was found dead around his house. Also his girlfriends cat disappeared a couple of months after she moved in. He was not in at the time. He was away in a minibus he kept at the house. There are conflicting times on when he left but I can ask a neighbour who has a security camera. The body was hidden under his car in the space from the back tyre and the end of the boot you could not see him from the road or one side of the neighbours but can be seen on the otherside and that was how he was found. I have no evidence for this so I can't go around accusing people.

Lucreto

I got the call back from the Vet and he checked everything except the brain and can't find anything so he rules it a heart attack.

There was nothing we could have done.

boomerang

Not to be blunt about it; cats do experience distress at the loss of a companion but it's short-lived.

Very sorry for the loss of your lovely cat.

melon_collie

Sorry to hear about your cat OP. Losing a pet can be incredibly upsetting. We lost a cat last year and for a few days after the cat that was left behind spent a lot of time going from room to room meowing, looking for the other fella. It was heartbreaking to watch.

A week or so after it happened we decided to get a new kitten. Whilst there was a bit of work introducing them to each other at the beginning it has been well worth it. They are great company for each other.

Perhaps this might be something you'd consider once you've had a chance to come to terms with things. How old is the cat you have at the moment?

holyhead

So sorry to hear about your cat's passing. From reading another post found it very sad to read about the cat going from room to room looking for his buddy.

beauty101

Very sorry to hear about your cat. I lost one of my 15 year old cats last Wednesday and her sister-cat is definitely missing her. Like you, I showed her the body which gave her some "closure" I guess but she's out of sorts.

Today, she's more herself. I think it takes them a few days to get used to life on their own when they've been used to a companion always being around.