Question:
Not long ago I came home to find my cat, Harley, dead. I had just taken her to the vet for her annual booster shots and he listened to her heart and lungs and said they sounded good.I just read your article on how coughing can be a sign of heart problems the day before she died and was planning on asking my vet about that. She had been coughing for about a year, and when I took her to the vet he told me it was probably just allergies. I believed him and thought nothing more of it until I read your article.I'd like to know if congestive heart failure is hereditary, and should I get her kitten checked out for it now or should I wait and see if she starts coughing like her mother did. Is this condition treatable when detected early on?.
Jan 18, 2004
Answer:
Your veterinarian should report your cat's sudden death to the manufacturers of the "annual boosters" that were given shortly before your cat died. Without a full autopsy there is no absolute certainty that this was the cause of death, but the probability is high. Giving annual boosters of multiple vaccines is a practice many veterinarians are now abandoning.Congestive heart failure is not a hereditary disease. Cats cough for a variety of reasons, allergy-linked asthma being quite common in cats. Since your veterinarian found your cat to be healthy at the time of vaccination (a sick animal should never be vaccinated), the most probable cause of death was an adverse vaccine reaction.
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