awww, sorry for your loss.

5/10/2010 10:58:25 PM

I will miss Yoshi stretched out in my lap when I come to visit

5/10/2010 11:12:24 PM

here are some more pictures. there are some from when he was little up until march 20th of this year. if you're friends w/ me on fb, there's a video i posted from that same weekend. it won't let me link to it.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2390497&id=11805098&l=8b9ac851c7

5/10/2010 11:27:23 PM

great photos. i love his tail

he appears to have been a very cool cat...again i'm so sorry for your loss

5/11/2010 9:18:17 AM

Ok, this one made me lol IRL a little

5/11/2010 9:40:30 AM

Sorry for your loss.

5/11/2010 9:44:59 AM

this made me very sad

i'm so sorry.

my kitties are very sorry too and send their condolences.

5/11/2010 12:06:03 PM

Sorry for your loss

5/11/2010 12:33:57 PM

i put 55 new pictures in that same facebook folder. lots of them from when he was younger/smaller, including the ones from the craigslist ad.

5/11/2010 9:10:35 PM

Im very sorry

5/12/2010 9:41:12 AM

Bubbles of air formed inside his body and killed him? WTF

5/12/2010 1:18:07 PM

Yes. It's a scary thing.
They didnt find the leak in Yoshi, but if a leak develops in the lungs and/or trachea then air can be forced under the skin causing bubbles. In his case the air went under all his skin and inside his chest/thorax/abdomen causing his lungs to collapse

We actually had picked up a stray kitten once who had air bubbles under her skin on top of her back. We don't know why she had them, but she was otherwise healthy and they went away on their own.

[Edited on May 12, 2010 at 1:28 PM. Reason : apparently it can happen in humans too.]

5/12/2010 1:27:42 PM

im so sorry for your loss. i've been looking into the whole subcutaneous emphysema situation on VIN and i cant find anything on spontaneous occurrences, only ones induced by trauma. although, i did speak with a vet last week who talked about sea otters involved in oil spills having it without any known physical trauma and they have yet to determine the cause of it either. but again, im sorry, he was a cutie!

5/12/2010 1:35:31 PM

^that's interesting about the otters. i'm going to look that up. i know it has nothing to do w/ yoshi but it's interesting nonetheless.

----
it started with the pneumothorax, which was the COD. when the air starts to run out of space in the ribcage it moves into the skin. at least this is how i understood it. i could be wrong.

the thread title should read "cat died of pneumothorax, no known cause"...but at the time the sub. emphysema was so weird and dramatic that i thought that was what killed him.

the most common cause is trauma, but he wasn't injured and the necropsy showed perfectly normal tissues, bones, etc and no signs of trauma. the lady said she had seen only 1 other case of a spontaneous one, but in an old dog.

we're still waiting on the detailed report w/ pathology results. i hope it shows something. i don't have high hopes though.

my boy is the on his way home. should be here today or tomorrow. i think i'll feel much better once i have him back. his urn is supposed to come in today or tomorrow also.

[Edited on May 12, 2010 at 1:53 PM. Reason : ]

5/12/2010 1:52:20 PM

my yoshi man is home. i am amazed at how quickly this all happened. we dropped him off sunday afternoon at the lab. the necropsy was done monday and he was picked up by the cremation service monday afternoon. he was cremated tuesday and shipped last night. he arrived home today. wow.

i hope that no one needs this service, but if you do, Carolina Pet Cremation is great. their prices are about $30 cheaper than Faithful Friends and they include shipping. they also sent yoshi's tag from the lab, a Rainbow Bridge card, list of ways to deal w/ the grief, & his footprint in clay with his name inscribed (plus some fur stuck in it accidentally). there was also a certificate saying that they follow the IAOPCC protocols, the cremation unit was cleaned beforehand, and that the ashes contained are his and his only. i like that. that is something we did not get with our childhood dogs' ashes and it was something that always lurked in the back of my mind.

my boy is home. my boy is home.

5/12/2010 9:32:18 PM

5/12/2010 9:46:46 PM

cat not haveing enzymes like ppl they poision of almost everything in the household. they not even tastebud so they not even when thing taste bad is dangerous

5/13/2010 6:15:48 PM

uh what? engrish not so good.

he was not poisoned. i have mentioned that a couple of times now. there was no poison, no chemicals, nothing toxic in his system nor did they find any evidence of an allergic reaction. read the thread next time.

5/13/2010 7:22:51 PM

sorry this scares me for the Dood too. don't know what i'd do without her (she is currently looking a little scared cause i got the lovin grip on her right now).

5/13/2010 11:24:40 PM

Thanks for the info about the cremation service -- I'll have to remember that. Hopefully I won't have to use it for a long time.


STREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETCH





Did he magically learn how to climb glass shower doors? When I gave one of our cats his first bath (the day we brought him home from the shelter) he managed to climb a flat glass shower door. Nothing on it...just glass...I was impressed to say the least.


[Edited on May 13, 2010 at 11:37 PM. Reason : ]

5/13/2010 11:28:47 PM

you have me freaked out now. After I first read this thread days ago, I noticed a tiny lump on the haunch of one of my kitty's back legs, I think we've decided it's a fatty deposit, but I'm still worried about it. He doesn't mind at all or notices when I touch it or probe it. I really hope it's not air. Should I take him to the vet for something so small?

5/14/2010 7:18:32 AM

subcutaneous emphysema caused by pneumothorax starts around the neck, chest, and head. it has to be very severe to get to the arms and legs. if you touch your kitty's skin and it doesn't feel or sound like rice krispies, then it's not SE.

how old is your kitty? benign fatty tumors are common in older animals. well, dogs for sure. i've not heard of a cat with it, but i'm not a vet.

if it was my cat, i'd take him in. not that there was anything that happened before or could have been done for yoshi, but i'm not ignoring anything in my pets from now on. i'm thinking about buying insurance w/ the cancer rider for my 2 older pets, a 7 year old dog and a cat who will be 8 this year.

-------

i really want to thank everybody for the support and the lack of jackassery in this thread (don't make me take that back). tww can be surprisingly helpful. we didn't learn about a freak allergy, or reaction to a chemical, or anything else that could be passed on to help other pet owners...but what i'm taking away from this is that random really horrible shit happens with absolutely no warning and can take away your loved ones. love your pets, and your people.

the night before yoshi died, he jumped into my lap while i was using the computer (which he used to do all the time). i let him stay for a little bit but he was blocking my view, so i made him get down. now, anytime any of my pets comes up and wants to be petted, i'm stopping whatever i'm doing and petting them. the internet is not as important as they are.

5/14/2010 7:40:06 AM

this is yoshi's urn. it's not a very good picture. my camera battery let me take one then said it was exhausted. that's his collar, his favorite toy, his bed, and zoe. i let everybody sniff his collar on the urn last night. they sniffed for FOREVER, then suki licked his head. his collar smells like he did.

5/14/2010 8:29:22 AM

yoshi died at 9:34am a week ago. i cannot believe it's been this long, but at the same time it's been the longest week ever. my poor boy. i love you so much yoshi.

5/16/2010 9:06:01 AM

i finally got the report back on yoshi's necropsy. this is my description of the report. i had to look up some words to be able to understand, so if i have something wrong, let me know.

the cause of death was pneumothorax, which we knew. this just means there is air between the lungs and ribcage. there are lots of difference causes for it.

the exam showed fully collapsed lungs in all lobes. there was air in the tissues inside his body (not just in the skin) which also collapsed his trachea and squeezed his heart. his other organs and internal structure were normal. no birth defects, no trauma.

the alveoli, structures in the lungs which oxygenate the blood, showed atelectasis. this is a collapse or filling of fluid of the alveoli, which prevents oxygenation of the blood. the blood circulates back into the body loaded with carbon dioxide. atelectasis is common with pneumothorax.

the histology report showed normal tissues in the liver, spleen, brain, heart, & kidneys. all were normal weight, shape, etc.

the final conclusion said that the eosinophilia looked to be typical of heartworm infestation, but that no evidence of worms or larvae were found. eosinophilia is also common with a severe allergy, although no definitive answer as to what he could have been allergic to will ever be found.

allergies can develop suddenly and to anything, so there's no way for us to find it could have been. there were no new chemicals, products, foods, nothing new at all that had been introduced.

so, that doesn't really answer much, but besides let us know that nothing could have been done and that me, my husband, my cat, and 2 dogs are not in danger.

5/24/2010 9:57:23 AM