Help, COTH!
Our cat threw up a couple of times this morning before breakfast, and the second time I noticed it contained a three-inch piece of curling ribbon apparently liberated from my wrapping stash!
The problem is - how I tell if he has expelled it all?! He ate all his breakfast and seems quite normal, but we’re going out of town for 24 hours this evening, and now I’m nervous to leave him… talk me off the ledge (or convince me to call the vet)!
Thanks!
I’d probably at least call the vet and see what they say. Unless you can figure out how much he ate, you won’t be able to tell when it’s all out.
Ribbons are very concerning because they have a tendency to cause linear foreign bodies. I’d take him to see the vet.
Do you know for sure if she ate more? If there is a possibility that she ate a sting of it, I’d be concerned for a linear FB and have an xray done. With a linear FB often outcome is good if caught early. If left too long many patients don’t make it.
Could you ask the vet if they will keep the kitten for you under observation until you get back?
Ours also runs a boarding kennel and they can do that in such situations.
Definitely, I’d have X-rays done before I left town. You just never know what else is in there, and ribbon does cause a lot of GI issues. It can even cause the intestines to become damaged in some cases (saw that on an episode of Dr. Jeff!), which will necessitate surgery.
Thanks all - we called the vet who said if he was eating and using the litter box normally and not in any distress, we should be in the clear at the point so fingers crossed!
But isn’t she vomiting? Or has that stopped?
He vomited Saturday morning (at which time we noticed the piece of ribbon) but had no further symptoms. 48 hours (and a call to the vet) later he is totally normal so we’re hoping we dodged the bullet!
Can you board him at the vets just in case? Linear FB don’t have good outcomes if not caught early. It sounds like he’s out of the woods but better safe than sorry if he won’t be seen for 24 hours!
No he is not out of the woods—not yet. Please please take you cat in for an x-ray at least and possibly to a different vet. My kitten ate something like a string and it took several months to do it’s damage. In that time he was pooping/peeing/NO throw up and then all hell broke lose. He started vomiting, then could not poop and would try to eat. I had taken him to my regular small animal vet and he was seeing him 2-3 X/week and kept telling me it was IBS. After speaking with a few of the vets here at Coth I took him to a vet that specialized in cats. Understand by this time he was vomiting and not able to poop at all. She x-ray him and found his intestines were twisted up in string and after surgery found the string was cutting into the intestines. NO he did not live. I even tried to sue that other vet but because he is on the SC Board of Vets he was well protected. So please find a vet that gets the inner workings of a cat which I now understand is different than dogs. A vet might be excellent at giving shots but can’t diagnose his way at all. By the way he would sometimes scream at night—he was in terrible pain—and the surgery was exceptionally expensive. Please soo a vet that can help your cat now. His death was terribly painful.
No he is not out of the woods—not yet. Please please take you cat in for an x-ray at least and possibly to a different vet. My kitten ate something like a string and it took several months to do it’s damage. In that time he was pooping/peeing/NO throw up and then all hell broke lose. He started vomiting, then could not poop and would try to eat. I had taken him to my regular small animal vet and he was seeing him 2-3 X/week and kept telling me it was IBS. After speaking with a few of the vets here at Coth I took him to a vet that specialized in cats. Understand by this time he was vomiting and not able to poop at all. She x-ray him and found his intestines were twisted up in string and after surgery found the string was cutting into the intestines. NO he did not live. I even tried to sue that other vet but because he is on the SC Board of Vets he was well protected. So please find a vet that gets the inner workings of a cat which I now understand is different than dogs. A vet might be excellent at giving shots but can’t diagnose his way at all. By the way he would sometimes scream at night—he was in terrible pain—and the surgery was exceptionally expensive. Please see a vet that can help your cat now. His death was terribly painful.
I would get an x-ray. Curling ribbon is about the single worst foreign object a cat can eat. It creates blockages and can be sharp/cut like a piece of wire under some circumstances. I understand being conservative sometimes but not with curling ribbon.
Oh kaluha2, I’m so, so sorry to hear about your kitten. That is absolutely heartbreaking. Please be kind to yourself – you did the best you could at the time.
OP – I hope your kitten is ok.
This is something that I worry about as The Big Fluff loves to chew & eat things. All string, ribbon, rubber bands, hair ties etc must be locked away – but it’s easy to forget or leave something lying around. He has had one blockage that involved an emergency vet visit & xray, but luckily that self-resolved.
Feliz thank you for your kind reply. It has been a good 5 yrs and when I read your reply I teared up. I am so happy that your cat was able to resolve the issue. OP please get your cat to a good cat vet asap.
vxf111: I believe you were one that helped me in my situation. There were several on Coth that helped me get my cat to a good vet and if I had gotten him to a good vet sooner he could have been saved. Instead I kept bringing him to that bad vet that kept telling me he had IBS and I was just dreaming up a worse scenario as my loving cat was wasting away before my eyes. He was just wasting away.
Gosh K, I’m so sorry to hear that 
As mentioned above, ribbons are very concerning. My cat ate a ribbon when she was a young cat and sort of accordioned her intestines in on themselves. She was a very, very sick kitty - projectile vomit, extreme lethargy, etc. Luckily, I was a undergrad student at Cornell at the time, so she was in capable hands at their vet hospital when she had to have major surgery. The whole ordeal was very scary. Thankfully, she’s now almost 16 and snoring away next to me as I type.
Glad your cat is feeling better but continue to watch very closely. I’ve found that with my ribbon-loving girl, she would never stop after 3 inches if she had the choice of consuming lots of ribbon. Do you have any idea how much he might have had access to? A leftover piece or a full roll?
K - some things you don’t get over. I lost a kitty 20yrs ago that I could have prevented & it still makes me so sad. I started tearing up while reading your post.
DoubleClick - our cat had the lethargy which we thought was him finally becoming really affectionate :rolleyes:. He vomited once the day before but we didn’t think much of it. The 5am vomit was a major clue all was not well - an enormous amount, truly it didn’t look like all of it could have come from one cat - and some of it smelt like poo, not vomit.
A quick google indicated it was an emergency so off we went . . .
Heck, I dread to think what’s floating round his insides. Anything he can chew & swallow goes down the hatch - all toys involving string are closely monitored and stored safely out of reach. When friends have house sat for us I’ve told them all about this and included it in the written instructions.
Kaluha, so sorry for your terrible experience - I appreciate you sharing We are watching our guy very closely - as best we can tell (since I’ve been keeping actual spools of ribbon locked away in a latched box to avoid this very thing!) is that 2-3" piece he threw up was a clipping he got off the floor (kicking myself for not being more diligent about cleaning up the wrapping area.) Thanks so much for all the advice!
That’s good to hear, hopefully that’s all he got his little paws on!
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