My cat died suddenly. Is his littermate at risk for cardiomyopathy?

I am so very sorry for your loss. I can't image how surprising and upset that must have been for you. The best way to find out why you're little boy passed away would be an autopsy. Without an autopsy, my best guess would be heart disease. Cats get a heart disease called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, where the heart muscle is abnormally thick and doesn't pump blood effectively. Often and tragically the first symptom of this disease is sudden death. Little One could be grieving the loss of her brother - this is quite common. The surviving pet's routines and life are suddenly different and their playmate is gone, so they experience true loss. Depending on how recently your boy passed away, I might be concerned about a toxin making them both sick. If you know about any potential toxin exposure or if there is mouse bait in or around your home, Little One needs to go to the emergency vet right away. I would be most concerned about a toxin if it was within the last 12-24 hours that your boy passed away. Beyond that, it's unlikely that it's effecting her so much slowly. All in all, if she's really acting strange, not eating, sleeping too much, having any vomiting or diarrhea, it would be best to take her to the emergency clinic for an exam. If you still have your little boy's body, doing the autopsy could ease your mind as well. Please accept my condolences during this difficult time.

I am so sorry for you loss! This can be genetic. I would have an echo done on her heart to look at her heart walls and chamber sizes. I would also have your vet do a proBNP (idexx) on her to get a baseline number. ProBNP is an heart muscle enzyme that increases with heart muscle damage or stretching. This and the echo together would give you a good idea on what the heart is looking like. I would recommend to do this once a year to keep a close eye on it since we know her heart could be genetically prone to issues. I hope this helps!

Hello. I am so sorry for the loss of Chicken's brother. If these are recent pictures of Chicken, then he still looks quite robust & healthy. He may very well be missing his brother & this could be causing him some stress. Loss of appetite & sleeping more are certainly signs of depression in people, so why not cats. As long as he is still eating & using the litter box normally, he looks like he will be fine until next Friday. I know you are worried, but he looks OK for now. Give him lots of hugs ( no kisses ). Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Hello and I am so sorry to hear about the passing of your kitty. It is so heart breaking to lose them. Without an autopsy, one can't be certain, but most often in a cat without any other clinical signs, it's usually a bad heart that will cause sudden death. One of the most most common heart diseases in cats is called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. It often has no symptoms. It is often not detectable on a physical exam. Sometimes there will be fluid in the lungs from congestion in the lungs that can leak out after passing. I hope this helps to provide some closure and with time, I hope your heart heals. My condolences, Dr. Elizabeth

He may have had an injury, been hit by a car or he had a congenital heart defect that caused a blood clot at the bifurcation of the aorta (that paralyses hind legs and hurts terribly). This can also cause a clot in the lungs which would cause breathing problems. Unfortunately most cats with these blood clots die within a short time. I am so sorry for your loss. This is very sad.

I am so very sorry that you lost your cats. Please accept my condolences for your loss. Without seeing them in person, I can't say what caused them to die, but it may have been something contagious. It could have been something like feline Panleukopenia, it's highly contagious. The other option is they all got into something toxic. Again, I'm sorry for your loss.

HI, I am terribly sorry for your loss. I can’t even imagine how you must be feeling.. My main suspect is that Oliver could have suffered with heart disease and this has not caused any symptoms until the sudden death, I am ever so sorry for you, sending you lots of sympathy from this side of the world.