Two weeks ago, I spent a lot of time typing “cat ate string” into search engines. Aura, my 10 month old Ragdoll, ate some. A lot of some.
In my 15 years of cat ownership, this is the first time I’ve had to deal with this, other than the time when my late Persian ate about 2 1/2 inches of string and I didn’t know it until I found him running all over the house trying to pass it on the carpet.
- Da Bird toy of death
Aura ate the string from her Da Bird toy. I had read about what a great toy this was, and it was for a few months. She loved it. I was always vigilant about putting it away when we were done playing with it, but she’s such a calm kitten in general that this time I didn’t. I was out all Saturday night at a wedding, then came home and went to bed. When I woke up Sunday morning, I went to pick up Da Bird. The pole and the feathers were laying side by side. The two feet of string that connect them was gone. There was about two inches of string left attached to the pole and then attached to the hook that the feathers connected with. The cuts were pretty clean.
I looked everywhere, but I couldn’t find that 2 feet of string. I panicked. I cried. I blamed myself. I deduced that it had to be Aura. My other cat never chews on string, and Aura does at times. My other cat hardly has any teeth left. My dog isn’t the type to chew on string, either. As a test, I picked up the remaining string and showed it to the dog. He sniffed and looked away. Aura sniffed and immediately tried to take a bite! A ha! I watched her like a hawk. I started giving her vaseline twice a day. She wasn’t exhibiting anything odd. She was still passing normal looking stool once a day. But after four days of constant worry, I took her to the vet for an x-ray.
- I love striiiiiiiing!
The vet thought she felt something hard in Aura’s tummy, but looking at the x-ray, all looked normal. The danger was, if she hadn’t passed it by then, it could be binding her intestines causing internal damage and bleeding. It could be sitting there gaining bacteria. It could cause blockage. Or it could be wrapped around her tongue, and the rest could be trying to pass through, thus pearling up her intestines (however I think this string is a bit on the thick side for that).
But it is now two weeks later, and had I not known that that 2 feet of string is missing I would be none the wiser. Nothing has changed. I’ve seen no sign of the string. I’ve tried to check every stool, but a new discovery brings to light the fact that I have missed some opportunities. This morning, it was confirmed that the dog does indeed eat out of the litter box at times. Great.
So, besides the fact that my cat eats string and my dog eats cat poo, all is well here!
Authors bio is coming up shortly.
I can relate. One of my cats at some Christmas ribbon. She threw up some of it and I stayed up with her all night to make sure she was ok. What’s worse is that I’m a vet tech, so I’ve seen a few abdominal exploratories and all KINDS of scenarios were running through my head.
Don’t blame yourself. Cats are very smart and stuff happens.
When I was younger, my friend had a black lab that ate a string. For him and it’s dog it was simple.
When the dog pooped, the string came out and my friend stepped on it and the whole string came out. Thanks so much for posting valuable information that aides pet owners. I’m so thankful that I found your blog.
Marc, that is very dangerous. Any string coming out must NEVER be pulled on; you can actually lacerate the intestines by doing this. Glad your friend’s dog was ok after that, though. Scary situation.
lol. This post made me laugh. I think it may have been the part about the cat eating string and the dog eating cat poo. Brings back too many fond memories.
So glad to hear everything is ok with Aura. Been thinking about getting Da Bird because everything I read about it says it’s such a great cat toy. But my domestic shorthair, Sage, has chewed fishing line off some of her catfisher toys, so now I’m not so sure.
It is amazing how these animals can give us a never ending stream of things to write about! This story reminds me of the time our Basset Hound ate two golf balls. You should have seen the xray pictures! He had to have surgery to remove them.
I must admit while I’m sure that this story was pretty scary in it’s creation, I did laugh as well at the ending.
Although the most important thing is that all “came out” well. Thanks for sharing.
What an ordeal! I’m glad Aura is doing well. When my cats were younger, they used to chew anything, even electrical cords. I had to quickly develop a way to “cat proof” my apartment. And guess what, my cats were always a step ahead of me. They always managed to get into some kind of trouble. Now that they’re older (12 years) they have mellowed a bit, but you never know.
I hope Aura continues to do well.