[Sca-cooks] Sorta OT, but important - cats and thread

[Bronwynmgn at aol.com]

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In a message dated 1/1/2003 3:15:12 PM Eastern Standard Time,
generys at blazemail.com writes:


> He bites the thread off my sewing machine, and runs away with it.
> Annoying but cute, or so I thought.  However, Saturday night he started
> throwing up.  ...  Anyway, when we got to the vet, we found that he had
> swallowed string and it wrapped around his tongue... once they did the
> xrays
> we found that it went all the way to his intestines.  Emergency surgery was
> performed, and he's now recovering... however, if he hadn't had the
> surgery,
> it would have been fatal.  Please keep an eye on your kitties!
>

We almost lost our cat, Dubh, before she was 6 months old.  My husband had
been doing some handsewing and absentmindedly stuck the needle and thread in
the arm of the couch while he went to check what he had done in the mirror.
He got back in time to see the cat with the needle sort of propping her mouth
open, but didn't have enough hands to hold her, keep her jaws open, and grab
the needle before she swallowed it.  She'd licked up the thread and then the
needle as well...

He rushed her to the vet, where they tried to put a scope down her throat to
get it out, but they needed to turn the needle around and her stomach was too
small.  So they had to open her up all the way down her stomach.  Fortunately
she was due for spaying anyway, so she didn;t have to have surgery
twice...She is fine now, and we are exceedingly careful about needles.  My
husband has a separate sewing room upstairs, and we fitted an screen door
onto the room for air flow and so she can see us, but not get in.

Brangwayna