My long weekend hasn’t gotten off to the smoothest
start. One of our cats, Milo, started
vomiting Thursday night and was still vomiting Friday morning. He has a habit of eating anything string or
ribbon like, so I was concerned that he had possibly managed to eat something he
wasn’t supposed to. His appetite and
behavior were normal, everything was normal, except the vomiting. I checked all of his usual forbidden “snack”
choices; all of our shoes still had the laces, all of my dresses and tops with
ribbons still had the ribbons, the Christmas wrapping paper, etc was undisturbed,
and nothing else seemed amiss. But the vomiting
was very, very unusual for Milo.
I called his vet and got him in for an appointment. Milo hates the vet. He hates any situation where things are
altered from his normal routine, and he doesn’t like to be touched by many
people, so he really, really hates the vet.
I ended up dropping him off so he could be sedated and x-rayed to look
for any sort of impaction. I was really
hoping that this would turn out to be yet another case of me panicking needlessly
about the fur kids. It wasn’t.
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| Photo from Wikimedia |
Milo has apparently eaten something metal. His vet says it has to be metal because of
the way it shows up on the x-rays. It
looks like pieces of thread in his intestinal tract. There are four pieces, about a half inch long
each, of whatever “it” is. Everyone
seems to suspect twist ties.
I can’t remember the last time we had twist ties in the
house. We buy the cinch style garbage
bags, and it seems like all of the bread and bagels we’ve bought lately have
come with the plastic clip rather than the twist tie. That being said, I can’t imagine what else it
is. It doesn’t look at all like jewelry
in the x-ray, and I’m not missing any jewelry.
Neither one of us can think of any metal thread-like object we’ve
had. The vet says it doesn’t matter what
it is because that’s not going to change the course of his treatment. We’d just all like to know from a curiosity
standpoint.
Milo stayed overnight at the vet’s office for
observation. He ate well last night,
which they say is a good sign, and today’s x-rays show that the object seems to
be moving along, so it’s looking good for him to pass it. He will be staying at the vet’s office until
he passes it, since he will have to have surgery if he doesn’t pass it soon, or
if any complications develop. We’re
really hoping it passes soon with no complications.
And we are now instituting a ban on twist ties in our
house. I have a feeling this episode is
going to be expensive, and it has definitely been nerve wracking. So, no more twist ties! I just don’t trust him not to pilfer one away
for later snacking purposes. I guess
twist tie versus plastic clip closure will now be the determining factor in
buying bread and bagels. Who knew such a
seemingly innocent object could lead to so much trouble?
