While the loss of a patient is never easy, every veterinarian (even if they are not willing to admit it) is affected more deeply by some cases versus others.
Obviously, one of the hardest ones are the unexpected deaths - especially in a young patients.
The kitty I mentioned the other day - 2 yrs old with pneumonia - died DESPITE us doing all that we could for her. It's cases like these that I would love to be able to necropsy because I do not know why THIS cat didn't respond to therapy that has helped many other cats. She didn't even get improvement for a short period after one or two medications was used, an O2 cage, etc. Was more going on (ie was THERE cancer underlying??)? Was it some weird or resistant pathogen? I don't know. The only way TO KNOW is to get tissue samples and send them to the lab.
In any case, the other hard part of this is not knowing if this whole thing was started by treatment of another medical condition. Some medications we use suppress the immune system to a degree. In a young, otherwise healthy cat, no one would balk at using these types of drugs. But then something like this happens, leaving those who did the initial treatment wondering. I know 1)I would done the same thing and 2) I would be feeling the same way.
No one wins here - pet, client, vets.
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