Is anyone here familiar with a possible genetic condition in cats

that might cause them to live healthy lives for a few years and then suddenly die with very few signs or symptoms after about two and a half years?

In June 2003, my parents got two black kittens from the same litter, in order to take the place of my cat Oliver, who I would be taking with me when I moved out. They got a male and a female, who they named Link and Naobi, respectively (our cousin has a black cat named Neo, we decided to do Matrix names too, and didn't want it to be a main character like Morpheus or Trinity).

The cats were healthy and active, and very quickly became part of the family. Both of them were of good size, and the Link was actally about 16 to 18 pounds. Big frame, but he also had a bit of a gut.

They lived pretty normal lives, but about a month and a half ago Naobi started acting more tired than usual. My parents were getting quite concerned (especially my dad, since she tended to favor men for some reason) and my dad, having worked in pharmecutical environments for many years and even for one that produced veteranary medicines, started doing a lot of research on her symptoms (which was really only fatigue, no physical signs) to see what he could find out.

One evening, though, Dad went downstairs to check on her, as he had been doing regularly for the past few days, and found that she had died in my old room. She had been laying under the bed, and apparently crawled out just before she died.

He took her body to the vet immediately, and the vet couldn't find anything wrong with her either.


We chalked it up to a sad episode and an unnecessary end to the life of a good cat. And my parents still had the Link, a dog, and my cat Oliver (my new place doesn't allow pets).

Everything was fine from then until now, occasionally Link would look for Naobi but otherwise he seemed ok.

Link had this game where he would fetch toy mice. Dad would throw them, Link would run after them, and bring them back to Dad in his mouth, just like a dog with a ball. He would do this for an hour sometimes, continually. And, whenever Link wanted to play, he would grab a mouse, bring it to Dad, and set it on his foot.

Within the past few days, he started slowing down some, started losing interest in the mouse game, but not by much. Then it got worse two days ago. Monday evening, Mom and Dad noticed that Link was laying around and sleeping alot. He usually sleeps very rarely, he was a very unusual cat. In fact, he was more like a dog than a cat.

Dad decided Monday that he would take link to the vet Tuesday when he got home from work, because he wanted to catch this trouble right away, didn't want to mess around.

But when Dad got home, he found that Link had died. He was laying on the floor in the basement, on the carpet, near the table that he and Naobi always used to sit on and watch people from. They buried him in the back yard, and my dad was telling me last night that he had to go through the house and get rid of all the toy mice (Link must have had 25 of them, at least) because finding them and seeing them was just painful. He is keeping one or two, which were Links favorites, but he just couldn't bear to all the mice in the house.





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Sorry about that, I wrote more than I inteded to and got myself distracted from the question.

What I am wanting to know is: are there any genetic defects or conditions that might cause a cat to live a healthy life and then just suddenly die without much warning at all?

Having Naobi die was bad enough, but then to have Link die just a month and a half later was just shocking.

And I am really at a loss, wondering what may have caused it.



Thanks for any imput.

It's sad enough to lose one fur baby but to lose 2 so close together... :cry:

Perhaps there is some defect in that litter. I've never heard of such a thing, but I suppose it's possible.

as to what might have happened.

And my dad is really concerned about it too, considering his line of work. Its just something we haven't encountered...

anyone else every seen this happen?

but, it might be worth sending their bodies to Cornell for an autopsy. My parents' neighbors recently lost a perfectly healthy puppy. Their vet sent the body to Cornell and discovered that he had been poisoned with a new generation rat poison. This poison doesn't kill the rats right away, so other animals are more likely to eat them, and then die themselves. It's awful! Nobody in my parents' neighborhood is sure where the rat or rat poison came from.

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/FHC/

My dad and I were thinking that Naobi (female) may have gotten a bug who was exposed to some pesticide, which may have killed her. It seemed likely, since she was quite the hunter. But the male was not. Plus, neither were outside cats, and I don't even know if they would have ever had a chance to interact with a mouse or rat.

Plus, my cat Oliver, who lives there, and the dog Mac (a scottie, who has been known to kill a rat or two in his day) seem to be fine. For now. I hope that doesn't change...

Thanks for the suggestion though.

That must be just aweful for him. I don't know of any diseases that might do that, although I wouldn't be surprised if there was something like that. Although, I have to say that I would be thinking along the same lines as Odonata -- some sort of poison or other substance. Are they outdoor cats? I was just watching an Animal Precinct the other night where someone in a neighborhood was poisoning cats. Very sick.

I'm sorry to suggest it because I know that's not a very comforting thing to think about, but it's all I can think of.

attacked by a German Shepard, during the day when my family was at work and the dog was outside.

Dad said the dog was sore for a day or two, but seems ok now.

Well, you can rule out a lot of stuff if the kitties were indoors. I hope you're able to at least get some idea of what might have happened.

I googled feline sudden death and found an interesting link here:

http://www.vetinfo.com/csuddeath.html

This link mentions a possible genetic component:

http://www.thedailycat.com/cobrand//bringing/sick/archive/heart/

Again, I'm sorry for your loss. Losing one is hard enough but the two so close together must be excruciating.

:hug:

is that they aren't even my cats.

I haven't lived there for four years, and have only spent about 8 months total with the cats, out of their 3 years. 6 of those months were spread over two summers (3 each), and the rest was just during vistits not more than a week.

But, when I heard about Naobi I was upset and on the verge of tears.

And last night, when I heard about Link, I had tears.

I even got a few while I wrote the post.

Sorry about your cats dying so young, that's hard.

Lots of things can kill cats suddenly but the large ones especially commonly have heart conditions , with HCM being the most common - an enlarged, thickened heart, that can suddenly fail. It may not even be obvious on a gross necropsy and might need to be sent in to the pathologists to confirm.