Soshie

We made the decision to have our sweet Soshie cat put down. Saturday morning when my parents left she was acting a bit woozy, having a hard time getting her claws retracted and falling over as if her back legs were weak. That night and yesterday she was worse, difficulty breathing, her heart racing, yowling, drawing her hind legs up, and just in a lot of pain. She was also incontinent, never a good sign. I'm pretty sure she was suffering from an Aortic Thromboembolism, she had many of the symptoms. We are very sad to lose her. She was slowly recovering from her mylar streamer ingestion and we had hoped she'd be good as new soon.


About Aortic Thromboembolism from Westlake Animal Hospital in Austin, Texas:

Another complication of heart disease in cats is the development of a blood clot, clinically known as aortic thromboembolism, which usually forms in the heart and travels through the blood stream. Most commonly, the clot lodges at the branch of the aorta that feeds the back legs, shutting down blood flow and causing partial or complete paralysis. This condition is excruciatingly painful and requires immediate medical attention. Cats experiencing an aortic thromboembolism will be unable to move their back legs and may vocalize due to the pain. Aortic thromboembolism usually indicates significant heart disease; two thirds of cats that develop this condition will die or be put to death humanely. In cats that survive aortic thromboembolism, recurrence is common.

Common clinical signs include tachypnea, panting associated with any activity, dyspnea, coughing, anorexia, vomiting, weight loss and lethargy. Some cats will develop hind leg paralysis, loss of femoral pulses, and cool limbs due to thromboembolism. Syncope or sudden death may also occur. Often, a heart murmur, gallop rhythm, or abnormal lung sounds are detected on auscultation of the heart. The cat may have experienced recent stresses such as anesthesia, surgery, boarding, or car rides that caused it to develop heart failure. Common symptoms include rapid breathing, panting from activities that are not normally stressful, difficulty breathing, coughing, loss of appetite, vomiting, weight loss and listlessness. Some cats may be paralyzed in their hind limbs due to a blood clot that forms in the heart and lodges at the branch of the blood stream that supplies the back legs. Some cats can have fainting spells or may die suddenly.



Please, please, if you have pets, make sure you NEVER have any mylar or other kind of streamers(like from balloons) or ribbons in your home. Objects that go into an animal's intestine can cause a rupture, cut, puncture, or blockages.

Around the 4th of October, Soshie ate a streamer that was attached to a small rubber ball, a child's toy. Soshie stopped eating and rapidly began losing weight within days and we didn't know what was wrong. Soshie was 11 years old, we'd never seen her eat thread or even play with something such as a mylar streamer in her whole life. I would never have guessed that she'd have done this except that I saw the evidence two weeks later when she passed the streamer. The damage had been done, the muscle tone in her intestines was weakened. She continued not to have an appetite and I fed her a liquid diet with a syringe for about 3 weeks. She finally had the strength and will to eat and seemed to be headed for a more normal life but she struggled with painful constipation to the end. The stress of this is likely what lead to her heart issue. So, please watch what you bring into your home that a cat could swallow. Soshie and I never want this to happen to another cat, ever!