Hi. I want to preface this with that I am new here, but I needed to share my experience. I lost my precious baby girl Cocoa last night, and the pain is still very fresh and graphic in my mind. But there’s something bugging me about it and it’s killing me.
Cocoa was 5 years and 11 months old, turning 6 on Friday. She was extremely healthy and happy up until the day before she passed. She had a bath, was playful, very energetic and hungry and full of vigor. But the very next morning something was wrong. She was stumbling in her cage and not responding a lot. We put her in a secluded cage to keep an eye on her where I sat by her most of the day. She couldn’t seem to move her back legs a lot, she was shaped weird (her back end was huge and her front end seemed extra thin, kind of shaped like a gourd). Her hair was also falling out with a lot of dead skin attached. After a while we noticed she wasn’t pooping, peeing, or eating. I realized she probably had a stroke because of how she was moving and one eye being less responsive than the other. I also examined her to see if she was impacted and put her up on the table in a soft towel and helped her pass some of it. That’s when I noticed her back right foot was bent where it shouldn’t have been, right in the middle basically folded up. Then I noticed the black and blue bruises on her ankles and feet which were very pale pink with white fur. They were covered from ankle to bottom of foot to even her quicks, all of them black and blue and purple and bright red. I realized both her legs were broken and she was paralyzed. She was very responsive on her front half, especially her head. But anywhere else was like I wasn’t touching her and she HATED her back end touched. I went and sat with her on my lap for an hour and was comforting her, knowing now the extent of her pain. I then felt a huge lump on her back left side. Now, this lump wasn’t new. It was first found by a vet who immediately tested it for cancer and the like. It wasn’t her ovary or any organ, and they said it had no fluid or any cancerous cells. It was deemed harmless and an anomaly. Well, it was swollen to about 3 times the size, and when I barely touched it she jumped in pain, her first response for a while at that point. After a bit she began to convulse periodically, and began nudging my hand to rest her head on it. She started drooling heavily on me, then within minutes began to shake, and twitch. And make almost a gagging noise and motion. Then she was gone after several terrifying and agonizing minutes.
What is keeping me up is how much went wrong overnight. How did she break her back legs, both of them? How did the lump get so huge so fast? How did her hair suddenly start to fall out? How did she have a stroke and become impacted? All so quickly?
All I can fathom is this scenario: the lump was some kind of cyst that ruptured, and put fluid into her body. The pain caused a stroke and/or seizure where, in the midst, she managed to break both her legs. The stress and pain caused impaction and rapid hair loss. And eventually it would cause another stroke or seizure that would be the last.
I want to be content with that and let it rest and grieve, but it’s so much so fast I can’t. Has anyone ever had such a gruesome, tragic, and sudden death like this?
We couldn’t afford to take her to a vet, and we don’t think she could have made the 1 hour drive to the nearest small animal vet under the pain and stress she was already in, so I have no expert opinions. But it was all pretty obvious when observing, at least what we could tell physically. It’s a fact her legs were broken, the lump was irritated, she had some form of stroke, she was impacted, and she was losing hair. But she was handled and observed the night prior with no symptoms of any of that. I know this is rambley but I’m in so much pain right now. I need closure on what could have possibly happened to my baby.
Cocoa was 5 years and 11 months old, turning 6 on Friday. She was extremely healthy and happy up until the day before she passed. She had a bath, was playful, very energetic and hungry and full of vigor. But the very next morning something was wrong. She was stumbling in her cage and not responding a lot. We put her in a secluded cage to keep an eye on her where I sat by her most of the day. She couldn’t seem to move her back legs a lot, she was shaped weird (her back end was huge and her front end seemed extra thin, kind of shaped like a gourd). Her hair was also falling out with a lot of dead skin attached. After a while we noticed she wasn’t pooping, peeing, or eating. I realized she probably had a stroke because of how she was moving and one eye being less responsive than the other. I also examined her to see if she was impacted and put her up on the table in a soft towel and helped her pass some of it. That’s when I noticed her back right foot was bent where it shouldn’t have been, right in the middle basically folded up. Then I noticed the black and blue bruises on her ankles and feet which were very pale pink with white fur. They were covered from ankle to bottom of foot to even her quicks, all of them black and blue and purple and bright red. I realized both her legs were broken and she was paralyzed. She was very responsive on her front half, especially her head. But anywhere else was like I wasn’t touching her and she HATED her back end touched. I went and sat with her on my lap for an hour and was comforting her, knowing now the extent of her pain. I then felt a huge lump on her back left side. Now, this lump wasn’t new. It was first found by a vet who immediately tested it for cancer and the like. It wasn’t her ovary or any organ, and they said it had no fluid or any cancerous cells. It was deemed harmless and an anomaly. Well, it was swollen to about 3 times the size, and when I barely touched it she jumped in pain, her first response for a while at that point. After a bit she began to convulse periodically, and began nudging my hand to rest her head on it. She started drooling heavily on me, then within minutes began to shake, and twitch. And make almost a gagging noise and motion. Then she was gone after several terrifying and agonizing minutes.
What is keeping me up is how much went wrong overnight. How did she break her back legs, both of them? How did the lump get so huge so fast? How did her hair suddenly start to fall out? How did she have a stroke and become impacted? All so quickly?
All I can fathom is this scenario: the lump was some kind of cyst that ruptured, and put fluid into her body. The pain caused a stroke and/or seizure where, in the midst, she managed to break both her legs. The stress and pain caused impaction and rapid hair loss. And eventually it would cause another stroke or seizure that would be the last.
I want to be content with that and let it rest and grieve, but it’s so much so fast I can’t. Has anyone ever had such a gruesome, tragic, and sudden death like this?
We couldn’t afford to take her to a vet, and we don’t think she could have made the 1 hour drive to the nearest small animal vet under the pain and stress she was already in, so I have no expert opinions. But it was all pretty obvious when observing, at least what we could tell physically. It’s a fact her legs were broken, the lump was irritated, she had some form of stroke, she was impacted, and she was losing hair. But she was handled and observed the night prior with no symptoms of any of that. I know this is rambley but I’m in so much pain right now. I need closure on what could have possibly happened to my baby.
I can’t offer much information on what happened, but I can offer my deepest condolences. 
