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Post by tallgirl on Mar 3, 2015 14:58:24 GMT
...what happened?
Long story, but to put it as briefly as possible: last Sunday night, I moved my sewing to another location, and when I came home Monday it looked like our cats had been into it.
I also found several puddles of cat vomit (just bile, really) around the house. Witnessed our cat Lucy vomiting and knew it was her. I suspected she may have swallowed some thread clippings from the floor.
Tuesday, more vomit, and still not eating.
Wednesday, took her to the vet, who didn't think she had anything in her belly as she was still a happy cat. Ran some bloodwork and gave us anti-nausea meds, sent us home. No more vomit.
Thursday, I woke up to find Lucy hiding in the basement, drooling profusely. Back to the vet who now deems her to be constipated. She has an x ray taken which does not show anything foreign in her, and is given an enema, and the look of relief on her face is hysterical. At least the diagnosis was correct. We're sent home with laxatives.
All weekend, she is much happier, but still not eating anything. She is drinking, though.
Yesterday I was back at the vet's again for an appetite stimulant drug. I gave her the first dose last night. Still not eating anything, but now she is like a cat on hyperdrive. She's wired.
This morning, the damn cat still has not eaten a single bite of food. But lo and behold, I discover about 3" of thread sticking out of her backside. Clearly the little bugger did eat some after all. Not sure if it should have shown on the x ray or not. I mean, it's thread, not a tennis ball. I've heard it's dangerous to pull on things sticking out of cat butts, so I just clipped it off. I will leave it for the vet to deal with, because I already have an appointment to take her back in this afternoon - the vet says she will need to be force fed if she has not eaten anything on her own by then (which I am pretty sure she won't).
Anyway. Just wondering... for those who have cats that have ingested foreign bodies... what did they eat, and what was the outcome? i.e. did it work its own way out, or did you have to go in after it?
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Post by bbkeef on Mar 3, 2015 15:18:32 GMT
My cat ate a piece of scented potpourri which gave him gastroenteritis. The vet put him on Zantac and something else, but I don't remember what the other med was. I first noticed because he was whiny, clingy and lethargic. He wouldn't eat and kept throwing up. The Zantac really helped him, but if I remember right he didn't eat for almost 2 days. We just held him a lot and tried some soft food. After day 2 he was back to his old cranky self.
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georgiapea
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,846 
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Post by georgiapea on Mar 3, 2015 15:24:14 GMT
One of my cats once ate a string attached to a large darning needle that someone had sewn up a thanksgiving turkey with. The needle had to be surgically removed! That was the last cat ever allowed outside on his own.
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Deleted
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May 12, 2024 21:30:35 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2015 15:26:40 GMT
Our girl cat, Delilah, ate a length of cotton embroidery floss shortly after we adopted her. We spent over $300 dollars for the vet to give her a teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide to force her to throw it up.
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Post by jesq on Mar 3, 2015 16:48:20 GMT
How long does it take to see negative effects from string eating? My cat ate a couple inch long length of embroidery floss about 5 days ago. She seems fine so far. Would I know by now if it was going to cause a problem? That cat loves string. Every time I work on my cross-stitch I have to hide the string from her. She got another piece a couple of days ago, but I managed to pull it out of her mouth before she swallowed it.
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Post by whopea on Mar 3, 2015 17:08:14 GMT
Our cat has eaten lots of things that he shouldn't. He's eaten rubber bands and colored silly bands. He's been able to get rid of those on his own. Once he was behaving like you described your cat and we took him to the vet. He had eaten six ponytail holders and a foot long piece of ribbon. The vet removed them by a scope down his throat. I would think your vet should do a double scope to remove everything. If it's not removed, that could cause serious harm in your cat's digestive system.
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Post by freecharlie on Mar 4, 2015 5:40:13 GMT
My cat searches for my hair bands to eat. I've had to put them on door knows instead of in drawers because he will open the drawer to get to them.
As far as I know he hasn't had any side affects, but that doesn't mean the random pile mod cat puke isn't a result.
I hope your cat is doing better.
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Post by epeanymous on Mar 4, 2015 5:51:27 GMT
My cat ate a ribbon and ended up having it surgically removed. I do not know if she was x-rayed or if it showed up (dh took her), but we knew she had swallowed it, and she had been refusing to eat and would lie on the floor on her stomach like you might if your stomach hurt. She was totally fine after the surgery (the ribbon, on the other hand, was not  ). |
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Post by chaosisapony on Mar 4, 2015 6:01:16 GMT
My cat searches for my hair bands to eat. I've had to put them on door knows instead of in drawers because he will open the drawer to get to them. My cat does this too. He will paw open the drawer and medicine cabinet where I usually keep them and play with them. Eventually they break and then he eats them. I come home and find little pieces of hair band on the floor and it's never enough pieces to make a whole one. Of course I try to minimize his access to them but there haven't been any ill effects so far. Good luck, I hope your kitty feels better soon! |
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Post by bothmykidsrbrats on Mar 4, 2015 8:08:19 GMT
None of my cats have, that I know of.  My BFFs cat caught a mouse in her outside kitty run and ate it. She got a bone stuck in the throat  and it cost BFF $1200. Hopefully the vet will be able to take care of her, and she'll be starving tomorrow. If she's still not hungry, try feeding her Gerber chicken or beef baby food (Gerber doesn't have garlic or onion in it). Even if you can get her to just take a lick or two off your finger. Don't let her eat it exclusively for more than a couple of days. Fancy Feast Broths are good too. Sometimes when cats stop eating, they need extra help getting interested in it again. None of mine have ever cared for boiled chicken, but a lot of cats do. All my cats have either puked appetite stimulant pills right up, or became speed freaks, but did well on an Rx wet food that contained some sort of stimulant. Sorry, I can't recall the name. Your Vet will know what it is. Sending positive thoughts to you and your kitty. |
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Post by jackietex on Mar 4, 2015 8:43:35 GMT
I had one cat that needed surgery to remove foreign objects, but for the life of me I can't remember what the symptoms were that caused us to bring them to the vet. The first time he had foam ear plugs that were acting like a cork, and the second time he gnawed off Barbie's friend Ken's feet and swallowed them. Those were pretty funny on the x-ray.
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Post by pjaye on Mar 4, 2015 10:32:47 GMT
Yep - my story started off pretty much the same as yours, I was doing a craft project and I was suspicious that she has swallowed some ribbon.
The trouble with thread/ribbon etc is that it can get caught up and perforate their bowel - then gets critical really quickly.
This was my first cat and my old vet, basically he said that "cats just don't eat stuff they find lying around like dogs do"
4 vet visits later - she had the x-rays, barium enema, rectal exploration, appetite stimulant, found nothing and she still refused to eat.
After 4 days I agreed to exploratory surgery on her abdomen as it was obvious something was wrong and she wasn't getting any better.
They found a meter of blue ribbon and a big red elastic band in there causing an obstruction (did not show up on x-ray at all). Luckily it hadn't perforated her bowel. She spent 5 days in hospital recovering and it cost me $3000 (and that was almost 18 years ago).
She recovered fully but I made sure there was never any ribbon/thread/elastic left lying around after that.
From what you describe of her symptoms, it sounds highly likely she has eaten something she shouldn't have, and if that was my cat now, based on my past experience, I'd be asking for surgery.
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Post by compwalla on Mar 4, 2015 13:46:26 GMT
Once we had a cat who ate a bunch of real aluminum tinsel (not the plastic kind) off the Christmas tree. It wadded up in his gut and by the time we realized what he'd done it was already in a place where an enema could remove it. He was wicked sick for a few days though. My sister's cat ate a threaded needle. My sister left the threaded needle poked into the spool of thread and her cat just ate up the whole thing, needle and all. That was surgery and a lot of money to remove. We have learned that we can't have presents with bows or ribbons, can't throw dental floss in the bathroom wastebin, and we have to put all the scotch tape in a drawer out of reach of cats. Here's hoping your kitty's thread issue passes on its own.  |
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Post by tallgirl on Mar 4, 2015 14:01:29 GMT
Not going to pass on its own. She's in for surgery today. Damn cat!!!!!
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Deleted
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May 12, 2024 21:30:35 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2015 17:52:34 GMT
I'm glad your vet has finally decided that further action is required. Let us know how your cat is after the surgery.
My story...many years ago my son brought home some craft project he made at school for Christmas. It had yarn on it. He hung it on his door.
Darn if that stupid cat found a way to get that project down and proceeded to eat the project.
I saw her running around like a fiend...and when I finally got my hands on her, saw that she had maybe 6" of yarn hanging out of her mouth. She seemed in distress. I tried (gently) to pull the yarn out and it didn't move. I knew NOT to pull too hard and I packed her up immediately and headed to the vet.
Surgery was done (to the tune of a few thousand dollars by the time the bill was tallied) and the vet retrieved 3 ft. of yarn from inside my cat.
I'm still very OCD about yarn/string. If I see a piece of thread on the floor that came off clothes from the dryer, I pick it up. When we floss our teeth, used floss goes in the toilet...NOT the garbage because I don't want to take the chance that she'd ever get her mouth on it.
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Post by PolarGreen12 on Mar 4, 2015 17:57:34 GMT
...what happened? Long story, but to put it as briefly as possible: last Sunday night, I moved my sewing to another location, and when I came home Monday it looked like our cats had been into it. I also found several puddles of cat vomit (just bile, really) around the house. Witnessed our cat Lucy vomiting and knew it was her. I suspected she may have swallowed some thread clippings from the floor. Tuesday, more vomit, and still not eating. Wednesday, took her to the vet, who didn't think she had anything in her belly as she was still a happy cat. Ran some bloodwork and gave us anti-nausea meds, sent us home. No more vomit. Thursday, I woke up to find Lucy hiding in the basement, drooling profusely. Back to the vet who now deems her to be constipated. She has an x ray taken which does not show anything foreign in her, and is given an enema, and the look of relief on her face is hysterical. At least the diagnosis was correct. We're sent home with laxatives. All weekend, she is much happier, but still not eating anything. She is drinking, though. Yesterday I was back at the vet's again for an appetite stimulant drug. I gave her the first dose last night. Still not eating anything, but now she is like a cat on hyperdrive. She's wired. This morning, the damn cat still has not eaten a single bite of food. But lo and behold, I discover about 3" of thread sticking out of her backside. Clearly the little bugger did eat some after all. Not sure if it should have shown on the x ray or not. I mean, it's thread, not a tennis ball. I've heard it's dangerous to pull on things sticking out of cat butts, so I just clipped it off. I will leave it for the vet to deal with, because I already have an appointment to take her back in this afternoon - the vet says she will need to be force fed if she has not eaten anything on her own by then (which I am pretty sure she won't). Anyway. Just wondering... for those who have cats that have ingested foreign bodies... what did they eat, and what was the outcome? i.e. did it work its own way out, or did you have to go in after it? OMG LOL So two summers ago, my white cat Cairo, was on my bed. She was just laying there normal and napping. I noticed something reddish brown near her bum. I lift her tail and scream. There is about 5 inches of at the time what I thought was a worm, but them I noticed it was fibery and was actually some of my yarn. Let me tell you there is nothing more disgusting than pulling 20+ inches of yarn out of a cats asshole! It was everything I could do to not throw up everywhere! And through it all she just laid there and looked at me with contempt. |
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schooner3
Junior Member
Refupea 755
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Post by schooner3 on Mar 4, 2015 18:10:58 GMT
My DDs cat at a catnip toy similar in size to this one. They took him to the vet on Christmas day (it was part of a gift to my grandkitties). The vet took an x-ray and could see it but didn't do surgery. About 3 weeks later, the toy was found in a pile of vomit. No more catnip for that cat!
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Post by lovinlife on Mar 4, 2015 18:19:54 GMT
We realized our cat ate tinsel off the tree when she was running laps in the house. I wasn't expecting to see it flapping behind her as she ran so it took a few minutes for it to actually register lol.
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Post by tallgirl on Mar 4, 2015 20:44:52 GMT
The cat is out of surgery. I had a voice mail from the vet saying it was a very long piece of string so the surgery was not as quick as he'd hoped, but not as bad as the worse case scenario we had discussed. He inititally quoted me $1000-$2000. I'm hoping we come in at $1500. Of course, that's in addition to the $500+ we already spent on xrays, blood work, drugs etc. before we confirmed that the string was the problem.
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Post by ~Zoey~ on Mar 4, 2015 21:35:45 GMT
Thank goodness it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Here's hoping for a quick recovery and a bill closer to $1,500.
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Post by kkooch on Mar 4, 2015 23:17:59 GMT
Our two cats can smell a rubberband a room away! The other favorite is plastic bags, the cheap thin kind. They tend to vomit up the plastic. Glad your cat will be ok though
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Post by pjaye on Mar 4, 2015 23:35:59 GMT
Glad you went for the surgery sooner rather than later - much easier and quicker to deal with now than if the bowel perforates and she gets peritonitis.
Hope she recovers quickly!
The problem with stringy things is the cats anatomy. If you look at a close up of a cat's tongue it is covered in little barbs and they all face backwards into the cat's mouth/throat. So when they start chewing on a piece of string or ribbon those barbs basically guide it down and encourage them to keep swallowing...and makes it hard for them to stop and spit the string out, so once they start they just keep going until they have swallowed the whole length of string/ribbon etc.
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Post by KikiPea on Mar 4, 2015 23:43:27 GMT
Sorry it was expensive issue, but so glad kitty will be okay!
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Post by tallgirl on Mar 6, 2015 11:15:10 GMT
Final bill, taxes and antibiotics and painkillers in, $1886. Gah! This kitty had better live a long and prosperous life! She is soooo snuggly now that she is home. I think she knows we did her a solid. |
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artbabe
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,041
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Post by artbabe on Mar 6, 2015 12:06:00 GMT
My cat ate a hair band. That cost me $1100. Dumb cat. |
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Post by miss_lizzie on Mar 6, 2015 12:33:22 GMT
I'm so glad your kitty's doing well! Growing up, my mom had to ban plastic Easter grass because a cat ate it once and had it hanging out his rear.
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Post by hosschick on Mar 6, 2015 13:43:06 GMT
Aw, sorry about your pocketbook but glad to hear that your kitty is on the mend!
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).
My BFFs cat caught a mouse in her outside kitty run and ate it. She got a bone stuck in the throat 
and it cost BFF $1200. Hopefully the vet will be able to take care of her, and she'll be starving tomorrow.
