Hello,
I just found this forum and need advice or information from anyone. Two nights ago I rushed my beautiful, healthy, happy, 4 yr old male cat, Scooby to the emergency center. He was diagnosed with those crystals blocking his urinary track. The vet immediately took him into surgery and I am told there was no problem with the actual surgery but as soon as I arrived home I received a call from the vet saying Scooby had died. I was told that when Scooby awoke from the anesthesia he was so frightened that he went crazy, scratching and crying then collapsed. He just died.

Scooby was not a timid cat and had been to the vet before. He had been neutered at six months with no reactions or problems to anesthesia. I just don't understand and maybe it's my grief and anger over losing him but I am suspicious. I have been in rescue work for years and have never heard of a cat so frightened and wild after anesthesia that they die. Please has anyone ever heard of this occurring? Any information might ease our family's grief. We are in such shock and just devastated. Thanks for any help.

Lesa

Dear Lesa,
I am so sorry to read what happened to Scooby. That is heart breaking.

I use to have a black cat named Pumkin......he lived to be 18 years old and he passed on with this problem. I noticed one day that Pumkin was having a hard time urinating and small amounts of blood were showing each time he tried to void. I immediately took Pumkin to the vet and he was diagnosed with Cystitis. Those are the little ctystals that form in the bladder and down the urinary tract...................causing much difficulty and pain with urination. The vet gave me a medication for Pumkin to take daily and he did without any problems for almost eight years. Then someone left the garage door opened and Pumkin........who was a house cat.........got out and wondered away. I was going nuts trying to find him because I knew if he didn't have this medication by the third day...........he would be gone. The evening of the third day a lovely lady called me as she had seen my poster describing Pumkin. We found Punkin resting peacefully by the stream on her property. Needless to say, I felt as you feel now.....................was in total shock.

I share your grief Lesa and it is hard to understand what may have happened during the surgery and recovery with Scooby. I would want more of an explanation directly from the vet who performed the surgery and what was given to relax Scooby in recovery as he should not have been so hard to deal with. This is just my opinion...............but facts are facts if it will help to bring you to some peace of mind.....................then it is worth the time to know.

Again, I am deeply sorry and feel your sadness. Please come here anytime and tell us all about Scooby.

My thoughts and prayers are with you.

With love,

Litebrez

Dear Lesa,

I was just looking at the forum when I saw your post. I lost a very dear abyssinian cat after surgery on his teeth due to anesthetic. Tommy came home and collapesed on the floor. Tommy went back to the vet and died 3 days later after going in and out of a coma. It was just awful. Tommy was only 5 years old when he died and I just felt so guilty. What I found out later is that some cats are very sensitive to ketamine. That is the anesthetic they normally give unless you specifically tell them to give the cat ISO, which is a gas. I guess that ketamine really reeks havoc on their liver and kidneys. When I went to visit tommy at the vet when they were trying to get him to come around, he was acting really weird, it was like there was another spirit in my cats body. The lesson I learned from that whole experience was to never let them use ketamine again on any of my cats. Tommy died in march of 2004, and I have taken 2 of my cats in for their teeth. I now have them use ISO for anesthetic, and they come home that very day feeling almost normal.

I am so sorry about your cat. It is very hard to lose these special angels.

Thank you so much for your kind words. I know that sometimes things just can't be explained. I have another cat, Charlie, who is 16 and has cancer. We've been on borrowed time for months now and I have tried to prepare myself so this sudden loss of my youngest baby has been very hard. You just want to blame someone. It's too frightening to think this can occur so sudden and I still haven't heard a real explanation from the vet. One minute we were told the surgery went fine and we could go. It's just my son and I driving home at 2am and we were so relieved and happy. No sooner had we walked in the door and the vet called to say Scooby was gone. As much as I hurt, it was so painful to have to tell my child.

That's why I am so glad I found this forum. Somewhere I can now go when I am tired of being the strong one. Plus most of my relatives think I am crazy for the way I love my pets. It's comforting to know I am not alone. When Charlie first became ill, I drove 4 hours and spent the weekend in a hotel so he could be seen by a cancer specialist. My family thought I was absolutely nuts. But Charlie has been with me through college, marriage, childbirth and divorce. I think he has earned the best I can offer. He was given only a few weeks to live in January and he is still doing well so I know I have been blessed. But I am selfish and want to pound the walls and ask why Scooby?

I've been down this road of grief before and it doesn't get any easier does it? Yet I couldn't imagine my life without any of them even though I know how difficult it is when they are gone. Thanks for listening.

Many blessings to you and yours,

Lesa

Lesa,

As you've already unfortunately found out, there are others who have had similar experiences. I lost my cat Romeo in November. He was having a problem with one of his ears. He was always ultra-aggressive at the vet so it was decided that they would sedate him before they could examine him. He had been knocked out to have his front claws removed and there wasn't any problem. Anyway, I received a call about 2 hours later that it was ok to come pick him up and bring him home. They wound up having to give him at least 4 injections to knock him out. I picked him up and noticed he wasn't moving but I thought he was just sleeping it off. I got him home and realized I couldn't see him breathing. Deep down inside I knew he was dead but I guess I was in denial. I rushed him back to the vet all the time thinking that they could do something, they could fix it. But of course they couldn't, he was dead. I never got to say goodbye or tell him I loved him.

I know it's entirely possible he gave himself a heart attack, but I also know that the amount of sedatives (ketamine included) was too much. They should have stopped if they couldn't knock him out after 2 injections. We all sign that anesthesia waiver but nobody ever explains to us how common it is for something like this to happen. I got another cat in January and was suppossed to bring him to the vet last month to get his nails clipped. He was so scared and I could feel his little heart beating so fast when I tried to put him in the cage that I just decided to forget it, it wasn't worth it and I wasn't going to put him through it.

I hope you know that this isn't your fault. You(we, all of us) try to do the best for our animals, and sometimes this happens. It doesn't make it hurt less or make healing any easier, but if you somehow think you may have failed your kitty, please know you did not. It's been almost exactly 7 months since Romeo died. The other day I was going through some pictures on my computer and when I saw Romeo I cried like I haven't cried in a long time. I'm not sure the sense of loss or the pain ever goes completely away, but it does get easier to handle with time. There are many good people on this website who will help you when you ask.

I am very sorry for you to have lost your kitty that way. Please know you are not alone.

Steve

I picked up Scooby's ashes and the medical records today. It's hard to understand the shorthand but it seems like he was "hyperexcited" pulling and chewing at his cath and IV lines. Then "after restraint patient was masked & iso? " "During re-cath patient arrested...blah blah..."

Okay so I can't sleep and feeling pretty crappy. I have to try to make sense of this. Help me out here.

He wakes up going a little crazy...from a reaction to the anesthesia or pain whatever the reason. He is "restrained" what the hell does that mean? Then they gassed him again....and his heart stopped...was it the anesthesia? Too much too soon? This all happened in less than an hour. Did they hurt him when they restrained him? I know when we were in the waiting room we heard a loud crash like a table was knocked over. But no one came out to say something was wrong. We were there another 10 minutes or so waiting for the bill ($700 by the way). The girl at the desk even told us to go home and that everything was fine. That I could wait to talk to the vet in the morning when he had the blood work done. Now, I know Scooby was gone at this point and the vet was working on him...10 minutes later I'm walking in my door and the vet is calling.

I shouldn't keep going over this but I want someone to say they screwed up. I want someone to blame. If I can figure it out then it won't happen again. I want to stop payment on the check...file a complaint... scream at someone. This is just a stage of grief right?

Sorry, I'm a mess. In the last six months I have lost one of my dearest friends, my grandmother, an uncle and just an hour ago a friend called and said her mother died today...I've know her since I was 10 years old. It seems so strange but I have felt Scooby's loss the most. I suppose it's because my cats are my comfort when things are rough. I have never cried with out a fat cat in my lap. But I do have to say my beautiful chocolate lab is here now at my feet. So life isn't all bad.

I've spoken with many people who have lost animals after bringing them to the vet and unfortunately I've never heard of a vet taking responsibility for such a tragedy. People told me I should sue and would be able to sue for loss of personal property, because you can't sue for negligence or medical malpractice. My feelings were that of "what's the point?" Is 500 or 1000 dollars going to bring my baby back? Is it going to make it hurt less? Those of us at this site know the answer is no. But in my mind and heart I knew who was to blame even though I knew I would never get an admission of guilt. My situation was very different from yours in that my cat was just going to have his ear looked at, no surgery or anything like that, so it was easy for me to stop payment on my check and my vet also paid for the cremation expense. Unfortunately in your case surgery was needed so it kind of muddies the negligence factor.

I know you have learned a very hard lesson, same as I did. I have a 13 year old dog who needs surgery on one of his eyelids and I honestly don't know if I'm going to have it done, even if he goes blind in one eye by my not doing it. I'm just too afraid. There are a lot of things our vets don't make crystal clear to us. Yes, animals can die from anesthesia, just like people can. But a lot of people don't know that our animals can die from bad reactions to vaccinations as well. Some say that you shouldn't get yearly vaccinations for your animals (except for when they are puppies or kittens) unless they are around other strange animals, being boarded, etc. I have a friend who is a vet tech at Banfield Animal Hospital and she told me that they have had dogs who have died from reactions to distemper shots, etc. When an animal has a reaction to a vaccination you literally only have a couple hours at most to get them back to the vet. I don't know if the same holds true for rabies shots. For 13 years my dog has been getting distemper shots and nobody ever told me he could have a reaction and die from it. The best we can do is to try to educate ourselves, I guess.

I know my words aren't very comforting and maybe I'm too far removed from the raw emotions I felt in the months after Romeo died. Eventually you will stop thinking about "the end" so much and who is to blame, and you will only (at least the large majority of the time) remember those things that made your baby so special. In your heart you will always know the vet failed your baby, but I guess trying to get confirmation of that becomes like trying to get blood from a stone, it simply isn't going to happen. Continue to cherish and spoil that Lab lying at your feet, as I know you will. We have learned too late just how quickly we can lose our beloved pets.

My sincereist regrets and well wishes to you and your family (pets included).

Steve

Dear Lesa,

I just read through your post about Scooby and I'm so very sorry. I know when I lost Shiloh, it was something that I knew was going to happen. And then in May when I lost Hobbie, although it was more sudden than Shiloh, I could still understand why she passed away. I just can't imagine losing a pet so unexpectedly...again, I'm so sorry.

Whether we lose our babies expectedly or unexpectedly, the grief we feel is immense. One of the common things I've noticed about being a member here at LS is that so many people say the saddness they feel about their pet is more intense than when a friend or a family member passed away. I think we give so much to our pets that they actually become an extention of who we are. When we lose a pet we feel like we've lost a part of ourselves...I know that's how I feel with Shiloh and Hobbie.

I think what you're feeling is normal grief compiled with some very justified anger. No need for apologizing about being a mess...you have every right to be...you've experienced some major losses in the last 6 months.

You're in my thoughts.
Kathleen

I am sorry for your loss. I took my 8 year old pug in to have her teeth cleaned, of course she had to be put under to do this. She cried when they took her to the back room. She awoke from the anesthesia, but didn't make it thru the night at the vet's office. They said she was vomiting, had a fever, diahrea, and was having bloody vaginal discharge (she was fixed?), and asked if she had been sick. I can't help but wonder that they didn't examine her before they put her under. I lost my best friend on 7/2/05 and empathize with you.

I am so sorry for your loss. No words will help. However, I too have lost friends (human) and relatives and do not grieve them like I am still grieving the loss of Penni on 3/4/2005. I know that some think that this is cold hearted and abnormal. But ya know our hearts feel how our hearts feel. My thoughts are with you.

Leona