Lily ate a piece of plastic

[Kirsten]

I just played with Lily, and I used the toy in the pic below:



There are two of these glittering, tinsel-like stripes of plastic on that toy, I think you can see one of the in the pic.

Too late I have noticed that one of them was almost chewed off, and today, Lily tore a part of it off and swallowed it immediately. When I looked into her mouth, it was already gone.

Since that plastic has a metallic coat which makes the edges kind of sharp, I called the emergency vet to ask what to do. They said not to worry because usually these things leave the cat body "the natural way". That piece wasn't long enough to cause a bowel obstrution, only 2 cm long. So lets hope for the best.

BTW, I gave Lily some malt paste to make the passing easier. Hope she'll be okay, because on Tuesday, she'll have surgery anyway - it's spaying time!

Kirsten

[*ABYCAT* Alice]

Such a lovely picture!

I don't know what it is with plastic, but the cats seem to love it. The other day our tuxedo Tess was chewing on a plastic bag and she had started to swollow a big piece that we pulled up from her throat. Those yummy things has to be put away!

Costello also swollowed a piece og plastic one day. I called the vet who told me to give him some cooking oil so it could pass the natural way easier, and it did (and mostly does).

Hope she'll be fine!
//Alice

[Kirsten]

Thanks!

Yes, some cats seem to be almost addicted to plastic, but it's so dangerous! Not only that it could cause obstipation, some materials contain chemicals that cause neurological damage to the cat's brain. But I think they have to eat a lot of plastic until this happens.

What a great picture of beautiful Tess btw, so clear and sharp!

Kirsten

[RedHedd]

I don't know what it is with plastic - Mitzi loves to nibble on plastic bags. She doesn't get enough to cause damage (at least it doesn't look like it) - just enough to look extremely silly doing it and giving my bags a ragged chewed edge giving me a good giggle.

[slick]

Neither Max nor Speckles care much for plastic, but they love raffia and I've caught Max trying to eat a piece of it.

What a great picture Kirsten. Sure hope Lil Lily will be OK and that you don't to "help it out the other end" like I had to do with my RB Casper.

Alice: Beautiful picture of Tess!!

[Barbara]

Tigris loves the same toys and I am sure he must have eaten some of the plastic from time to time. As long as the pieces are short ones it should not be a problem. But you should be careful with longer ones (from gifts etc.)

If you are interested in a heavy case with a happy end look for Efrat's thread when one of her cats swallowed her bra straps

[CatDad]

I am sure that Lily will be fine.

Give her some love for me.

[Uabassoon]

Tibby also loves plastic. You could also try giving Lily a little bit of canned pumpkin, it's high in fiber and will help her to get it out of her system.

[Kirsten]

Guess what?? I found that piece of plastic in my bed this morning!!! No idea how it has been getting there!!! And I have called the emergency vet for this! LOL

Kirsten

[Twink]

Well, yay! I'm glad she didn't eat it, so that you don't have to worry about it.

My old roommate's cat was a horrible plastic addict. Bags were the worst, but given half a chance he'd also chow down on ribbon or anything else that presented itself. We had to be ultra-vigilant. I swear, if there was a bowl of food sitting next to a plastic bag, he'd go for the bag first!

Rizzo eats string. We discovered this when I left his favorite wand toy where he could get to it one day (yes, I know, this officially makes me a BAD cat mommy! I learned my lesson, though). When we got home, the wand was laying on the floor w/ a couple of inches of string attached, and the toy part was lying next to it w/ a couple of inches of string attached, and the rest of the string was nowhere to be found. This was a very long, thick piece of string. I don't know how he chewed through it, much less swallowed it. I watched him like a HAWK for two weeks after, looking for any signs of pain, illness, changes in litter box habits, etc. But there was nothing. I never saw the string again, either, so I don't know what that means. Maybe it was digestible. In any case, we've since caught him in the act of trying to eat our shoelaces several times, and a new, thin leather belt that came with a skirt of mine once. It's amazing how fast he can chomp through stuff like that. We really have to be on our toes and make sure everything that even resembles string is stashed out of reach.