My cat died after surgery. What are possible causes of death?

Hello. I am so, so sorry for the loss of your kitty. There is really no way to know if this was a surgical/medical error, if there was any underlying health concerns, or just really bad luck that she had so many problems after her surgery. Without a necropsy, there is no way to see or understand why this happened. You can contact your state board of veterinary medical examiners & lodge a complaint. They will ask for the surgical records & if something is amiss, they will investigate. That is about all you can do. Again, my condolences on your loss & thanks for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

I'm so sorry about your cousin's cat. There are multiple potential causes for his passing away. He could have developed a condition called FIP, dry form, which is not 100% understood but it's not an infectious or cancerous disease. It is also possible if there were any underlying kidney issues anesthesia could have sent the cat in the kidney failure. Also if a cat stops eating he can develop a secondary problem called fatty liver and that can be fatal. If it all possible a postmortem exam similar to a human autopsy could help determine what exactly happened. If not please know there are multiple causes outside of anesthesia that could be to blame.

I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your kitten! How awful. No, it's not at all common for an otherwise healthy animal to pass away in recovery after surgery, but it does occasionally happen - a horrible nightmare for everyone involved. If you want to try and determine what may have caused Yeti's death, I would recommend asking for an autopsy to be done (called a necropsy in animals). Some possible causes of a sudden anesthetic death like this would include an occult cardiomyopathy (meaning a heart problem that was not showing any symptoms and could not have been detected beforehand), or an allergic reaction to one of the anesthesia drugs that were used. I can tell that you're very upset, and I don't blame you. I would recommend sitting down to talk with your vet so that you can ask them to explain exactly what happened and give any additional information that they may have about his exam findings, the surgery itself, etc. to help you understand why he may have died. They may not know why either, but they should be willing to talk with you and do their best to answer your questions. Again, I'm very sorry for your loss.

Hi, I am sorry to hear that your cat suddenly passed away. Since her death was sudden and her clinical signs had resolved with treatment of chylothorax, I am also inclined to think a clot caused the sad outcome. I am sorry, it is very sad and unexpected. I have come across this before with trauma, heart failure patients and also in a dog post gastric torsion surgery. I send you all my sympathy.

Prior to surgery she was mildly anemic which may have been secondary to a parasite, fleas, infection, blood loss, or possibly it was just normal for her. Since her HCT dropped to 4.2 after surgery, I am concerned that she was bleeding internally. The only way to know the exact cause would be to have a necropsy done to look for abnormalitites. I am so sorry that your cat had to be put down. That is very sad.

I'm so sorry this happened. Unfortunately there is no way for us to tell you why she died by looking at some photos. If you want to know for sure you will need to have a vet do an autopsy. If this way a young cat the two most common reasons for sudden death are trauma (like hit by a car) or poison ingestion.

I am sorry to hear about the passing of your pet. It is possible to discover the cause of it's passing if a veterinarian preforms an autopsy. Otherwise try to focus on the good memories you had with your pet. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to post any additional questions.