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What are the chances?

Brizzle

Brizzle

Craziness
Today has been a REALLY bad day..And I felt like venting here.
My cat, Sargeant, started vomiting around 5:30am yesterday morning. Throughout the day, he was just throwing up bile. Finally, around 11:30pm at night, I realized how bad he got. He's acting lethargic and I decide I need to take him to the ER vet. He was also having pain in his stomach and with a past of having bladder crystals, I figured maybe something to do with that? Man, I was wrong. Something I never thought would happen...
Somehow a thick piece of string got stuck under his tongue and it's down in his throat(Sarge loves chewing on strings). It's all the way down to his stomach and crap and his stomach was working trying to pull the string down. It was cutting and making his tongue blue. So now I guess he needs surgery. They can't just "pull it out" because it could cut organs. I took him to UCDavis and they cost an arm and a leg. They want $4,000 for the surgery and me being a college student with not much money, had to say no. So I'm taking him to a vet early tomorrow morning where the vet at UCD said it'd cost probably around $1500. Something I can put on credit. They cut the string at the ER vet to relieve pressure and gave him some fluids since he's dehydrated from the vomiting. They gave him pain medicine so he's sleeping in a crate right now. I don't want him moving at all for fear of the string cutting something. I seriously hope my cat will be okay. This really is bad luck.
 
Well, that sucks. I'd think that once they cut the string, it would just continue on its way. You're lucky you have credit to use for an emergency like that. Hope everything goes well today.

Nanci
 
omg..that's awful. I have a cat, and three dogs....I really sympathize with you..it can be costly when something goes wrong, not to mention how much our furbabies mean to us.

keeping my fingers crossed that your kitty is recovering well. :)
 
Nanci said:
Well, that sucks. I'd think that once they cut the string, it would just continue on its way.
Nanci
Click to expand...

That's what I would think. But the vet said that it's a low chance it will pass and thinks I need to get him surgery right away. I don't know. I'm taking him to another vet this morning to see what they say. I may or may not decide to get the surgery.
 
I am so sorry to hear that - I know how hard it is to decide what to do when you don't have the money - my cat Luke went into kidney failure at the age of 1 because it turns out he can't have his rabies shot - he is allergic to it. I paid a ton of money when there was a 50% chance of him living... and he did! It was worth it. And now I don't have to pay for him to get shots every year... :)

I hope your kitty gets better soon! I'll be thinking of him.
 
I hope yr poor little kitty's gonna be okay. :( What a terrifying ordeal!

Just for future reference (or for anyone else who, kennehorrah, finds herself in a similar situation), there's something called a CareCredit card that my dentist told me about when I was "between insurance companies." Basically, it's a credit card made specifically for health care emergencies (for yourself, loved ones, and pets). I don't have the best rate on it, but I do have HORRIBLE credit, so I didn't expect better. And it's obviously for emergencies, so I wasn't too keen on waiting to find a better rate. Might be worth checking out if you have to pay for any other procedures.

(And no, I don't work for the credit card people. If this post isn't okay, I'm sorry. Go ahead and delete it. :) )
 
So here's the update..
I just talked to one of the people at the vet and right now they're basically closing my cat up. The surgery so far has taken at least 4 hours or more. There was basically string from his stomach all the way through his intestines to his colon. I don't know what the heck he got into. They said his intestines were kind of twisted and red and irritated. But after they started taking the string out they were able to pretty much breathe and became pink. They're saving all the string for me to see. I guess it was a ton. He wouldn't have been able to pass it I guess. Poor guy. At least he knows better now.
He should recover just fine.
 
Wow! I just read this thread what a time you've had. Poor kitty, I'm so glad he'll be OK. :-offtopic kind of, but I quilt and am constantly worried about the cats getting in the thread, it really scares me. It will be interesting to see what your kitty tried to swallow. susan
 
I went to visit him last night and he was purring and seemed okay. Just kind of out of it. They gave me the stuff he swallowed. I'll take a picture of it and post it to show ya guys later. I get to bring him home tonight. They want to keep him as long as possible to make sure he's okay. His temperature is more normal 'cause yesterday he had a fever. They're gonna start taking him off the fluids so he should be okay. I just can't wait to take my baby home. Ya'll are awesome for the support. I appreciate it! :)
 
So I have Sarge home now. He seems to be doing great. He won't stop purring and rubbing on me. He's already jumping on the bed even though I really don't like him doing that. He's eating a little bit and drinking water. I think he'll be just fine. I still need to post pictures which I'll do tomorrow.
 
So sorry to hear of your ordeal, but glad he will be OK. I know from experience how horrible it is to lose, or almost lose a beloved kitty. Sure hope he has a speedy recovery!
 
Yeah, he's my baby. He's my favorite of all my cats and I don't know what I'd do if I lost him. He's only a year old too.
Here's a picture of everything they took out of him..It's not very clear but you can pretty much see what he decided to eat..I guess it wouldn't have passed through him..
cat.jpg


And here's what his owie looks like..
owie.jpg
 
:cry: That story made me cry lol! I am very glad to hear your kitty is OK! He must be so glad to be back at home!

My kitten has a habit of chewing string and almost anything he finds. Its so hard to cat proof the house. I hope he doesn't swallow anything stupid.

Thats a fair bit of string your cat had in him...Wow! :bang:
 
Sorry to hear about your cat. The chances of that happening with a string-eating cat are actually quite high. Linear foreign bodies are NASTY, as you've found out. Often, they cause constriction of the bowel badly enough that parts of it will have to be removed. Just think of it this way--if you take a long piece of dental floss and wind it around several of your fingers, after a while, if someone pulls on an end, it doesn't move freely. There are lots of hairpin turns in your intestines, and that tissue is very soft; replicate those kinds of turns using dental floss and your fingers and you'll notice that as the string passes by a hairpin turn, it wants to cut into your tissue. Bad news.

Way back when I used to work as a vet tech, we had to remove string from a cat that went from the front end to the back end. It involved cutting into the bowel every 8 inches or so, cutting the string, clamping the cut end so as not to lose it, pulling the short piece out, moving up 8 inches, cutting the string, pulling the short end out the lower hole, sewing up and cleaning the lower hole, and repeating that process until we could pull the last bit out of the stomach up through the esophagus. It was quite a slow surgery.

Your cat will not have learned his lesson, so keep him away from string of any kind. Most people think it should just go through but it often doesn't. Never let your cat or dog eat dental floss, ribbon, or anything else long and string-like (socks for big dogs).
 
I had a cat that ate Christmas tree tinsel once (the stringy silver stuff). We hadn't known he had done it until one night we noticed their was a 6" piece of the stuff coming out of his butt. We had to wait and see if he would pass it on his own, and he did.
 
I've gone over everything in my room. I'm hoping I got everything and that there's nothing in here that he'll decide to eat.
He's already being his normal pain in the butt again. Climbing on stuff he's not supposed to, waking me up in the middle of the night to be petted(although that's cute...sometimes).
 
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