String theory

It’s been almost 72 hours since TJ ingested about two feet of stretchy string, and we’re a bit mystified about what happened to it.  TJ’s been eating normally, and I haven’t seen any poopy-string in the litterbox (and yes, I’ve been breaking up big pieces with the litter scoop to make sure I don’t miss anything… blech).  He doesn’t seem to have a belly ache, and his behaviour is fine (although he’s a bit more clingy than normal).  Maybe the string was made of some sort of material that dissolved really easily?  It was elasticized, and on a toy it’s quite durable, but maybe it just fell to pieces when exposed to stomach acids.  I really hope that’s what happened to it, and that we can put this incident behind us.  TJ is enthralled with the red string that comes on this particular Hartz-brand fishing pole toy (we go through a lot of them, because we use them as toys for foster kittens), and while he’s chewed a few of the strings in half before, he’s never actually eaten a big chunk this way.  We have one more toy that we haven’t opened, and I’ll be sure to keep a close eye on it when we start to use it.

If the string-eating incident hadn’t been so worrisome, it would have been kind of amusing.  We took TJ to the vet on Friday afternoon, and he was going to stay overnight so they could feed him a lot of bulky food, and then watch for him to pass the string.  On Saturday afternoon I called to find out how he was doing, and they asked us to come in and get him because he refused to eat!  They said he’d been terrified during his entire stay, and did nothing but hide behind the litterbox and cower.  They even put him in a quiet part of the clinic and put a blanket over his cage so he’d have privacy, and he still wouldn’t budge.  When we went to pick him up, he started to meow as soon as he saw us, and when I opened his crate door he practically leapt into my arms and wrapped himself around me.  It’s funny because TJ has always been a very confident and bold kitten, and he’s never seemed overly fond of us (he prefers other animals).  Since his night at the vet he’s been totally in love with us.

I still have to post Carlo and Bunny’s five-week photos.  They’re both doing great (they’re at that really cute stage where they hop around a lot), and Carlo has gained two ounces since last week.  That’s about 15% of his body weight, so I’m really happy about it.  His stools are getting more solid, too, although they’re still not absolutely normal.  I’m starting to think that he may end up being perfectly healthy, it’s just going to take him a bit longer to get there.  He’s still a week or so behind Bunny in terms of physical development and coordination.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 04/30 at 01:17 AM

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  1. Hi there.  I really hope that TJ passes the string.  My boy, Emerson, ingested an elastic string (with little plastic ring still attached) that was part of a cat toy many years ago.  After about a week, he developed an intestinal blockage.  Luckily enough, the vet could save him.  When we looked at what he had eaten, it turned out that the plastic ring on the string was small enough to fit through a cat’s trachea--which meant that, in the end, Sergeant’s (manufacturer of the cat toy) ended up paying for Emerson’s surgery bill.  So, I would suggest observing TJ a little while longer.

    Posted by Charlotte  on  04/30  at  10:12 AM

  2. Poor, poor TJ. Well, if he realizes how much he loves you and Flippy, maybe that will be the bit of silver to it all.

    Posted by Diana  on  04/30  at  12:23 PM

  3. Aw!  They are little stress causers, aren’t they?  I hope he poops the string soon because digging through the litter box is never fun.  Poor little guy.  Let’s hope he can manage the process vet free too.

    Posted by Von Krankipantzen  on  04/30  at  01:59 PM

  4. Bonnie can be like that wif the vet, too. One nite at the mergency vet was worse than lifin wif me. Hope TJ is jus fine. Any chance he didn’t actyouly eat the string?
    More kitten pictors! Please? I’ll let you rub my belly!

    Posted by Victor Tabbycat  on  04/30  at  06:41 PM

  5. Still no string!  TJ continues to be fine, and he seems to love us less today, so all is back to normal rasberry I feel 99% sure he swallowed the string because he was in a corner with it, right beside me while I bottle-fed the young’uns, but Flippy suggested he might have chewed it into little pieces and then swallowed.  There’s a chance of that—I think the string had a bit of a “snap” to it when bitten, so he may have been having a good time chewing it to tiny bits.  I know we’re not out of the woods yet… I figure it will be the weekend before I can feel confident that this was a non-event.

    Victor, Flippy took some kitten photos earlier this evening, but I don’t know if she’s had time to post them yet.  We had a dozen friends from all over the country come to town for a visit this past weekend, so we’re both a little exhausted, and behind on our blogging and picture taking.  Maybe I need to take a roll in some catnip to get my joie de vivre back.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  05/01  at  04:20 AM

  6. One trick that is used for doggies that eat things they aren’t supposed to… is canned pumpkin. Not pumpkin pie w spices, but the plain orange stuff in the can. Pumpkin.

    You can add broth to it and mix it up good. Add whatever kitty loves to eat, fish? bits of burger?

    Pumpkin bulks up the stool and creates a soft orange missile that will clean the plumbing on its way out. It’s good for doggies as a way to slow down the gut when there is diarrhea, and it’s good for speeding the passage of mistakes that get eaten.
    http://www.google.com/search?q=pumpkin+for+cats

    Posted by SemaviLady  on  05/01  at  05:03 AM
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