Bart memorial

Bart. Born ~March 2005, rescued May 2005, died January 15, 2013. You will always be in our hearts. Like many stray kittens turned in to the local shelter, Bart arrived too young to be put up for adoption. He and his sisters came to our home to grow up to adoption age and weight (8 weeks, 2 pounds), and to gain better socialization with humans, before being neutered and adopted out. The shelter lacks the space and staff to do all this itself, so it cultivates a fleet of volunteer foster homes. The shelter assigns temporary names, not expecting adoptive families to keep those names. But as Bart stole our hearts and tried to claim this as his permanent home, he also learned his shelter name so quickly that we were unable to change it. We just had to keep him after the foster period was over, and the shelter agreed. His Siamese 'sister' below is really a step-sister, adopted later from a slightly younger litter. ------ After nearly eight wonderful loving years, Bart died suddenly last night. Normally a very physically affectionate and loud purrer but generally nonvocal cat -- accidentally step on his tail and he wouldn't screech -- he was napping in one of his favorite spots in the adjacent room from us. Suddenly he let out a very distressed howl. We immediately realized he was in extremely critical condition (outstretched arms from a seizure, completely limp, loss of bowel control, glazed unresponsive eyes, and very difficult breathing) and headed for a 24-hour veterinary ER. We arrived ten minutes from the first howl, with him howling all the way. As we carried him through the door, the staff could see the need for immediate CPR. But after two shots of epinephrine and fifteen minutes of work, they never saw any respiration. Cause? Unknown without a necropsy, but most likely he 'threw a clot'. It turns out that sudden death of what seem to be healthy cats, at any age, is not uncommon. There are numerous causes. The most common is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the same genetic heart condition that strikes down young human athletes with (often) no warning. Apparently there is some limited treatment, but not cure, and it is very difficult to detect in the first place. In most cases, the first symptom is sudden death. Genetic tests have recently been developed for some of the variants in a few breeds, but are useless in other breeds. Absent a family history of it, other screening appears pointless. Of course, rescued pound cats come without a family history. Parasitic heartworm seems to be the next leading cause. It is possibly worth screening for if it is prevalent in local dogs, but the feline version happens at a much lower rate, 1-5% that of dogs. But asthma and several other conditions and infectious diseases also sudden cat death.