Cat ate string on Sunday and still no sign of a reappearance...

[user1471487399]

So on Sunday I walked in to find my cat chomping his way through a piece of string.
Best guess is that he has potentially had about 30cm.

Took him straight to the vets where they induced vomiting. No luck.

Sent home with list of signs to look out for and told to wait for it to make its way out the other end.

So it is now 4 days later and there has been no sign of the string.
He seems absolutely fine.

I keep thinking maybe I’ve somehow missed it in his litter tray or perhaps he had been feasting on it over a couple of days and therefore would be harder to spot.

So, what now? Anyone experienced anything similar?

And finally I know I’m a bad cat slave for leaving string out☹️

A similar thing happened to my friend’s cat years ago but the cats had esten several feet of cotton-it just kept swallowing and swallowing. Very dangerous as the cotton wraps itself around their insides and just cuts through the soft tissue.

The cat had to have extensive (eye-wateringly expensive) surgery to remove it all in sections.

I don't know. Our clinic has done many very difficult surgeries to remove string and cotton. I'm pretty sure the animal concerned was always exhibiting some of symptoms before the op was deemed necessary, but I'm not totally sure.

If in doubt, speak to your vet again.

Thanks for your responses.

My cat seems absolutely fine - no change at all in behaviour.

Will speak to the vet again in the next day or two to see if they have any further advive.

I unfortunately do have experience with this. My cat ate Christmas ribbon and as Holidayshopping said it ended up tying her insides up. Her organs ended up shutting down and on Hogmany we were told we'd need to make a decision on what to do. Miraculously they managed to save her and shes still here to tell the tale. She was very obviously unwell before we took her to the vets. Quite literally lifeless. It ended up costing us £1000s but thats because she ended up in the animal hosptial with it being a holiday.

Thanks plump82 for your message. Glad there was a happy ending for your cat.

How long after eating the ribbon did you cat start to show signs of illness?

It has been almost 5 days now and he is showing no signs whatsoever.

Id say a few days. She'd done it before and it'd always made an appearance in her litter tray. I guess the fact it was shiny it was easy to spot that shes passed it. Is there a chance yours could have done the same but because it was string it wasnt noticeable?

Our young cat swallowed some string off a joint of meat before I could stop it. We never found the string in the litter tray and he never showed any issues at all. That was several months ago now. Can it be dissolved by stomach acid ?

Thank you both for your relpies. Really appreciated.

To answer your questions.

I guess there is a possibility he could have passed it without me noticing but I have been checking so would be quite surprised.

Note sure if the string can be dissolved by stomach acid.

He is still well today with no signs of any problems.

Will call the vet again tomorrow to see what they say.

My friend’s cat was ill the morning after eating the cotton.

We had this exact worry just before Christmas when our cat lapped up ribbon I was using to tie ornaments to the tree. It was only around 20cms long though and fabric.

Spoke to vet the next morning after googling it who told us to rush her in if any signs of discomfort. Kept her locked in so she used the litter tray for most of that time.

I fed her extra wet food to try to get bowels moving quicker but she didn't pass what looked like it until day 5. We were quoted approx £2000 if an op was needed to remove it so definitely won't be letting her get hold of anything like that again!

Took her for a routine health check a few days later and she was fine.

Glad your cat was ok madmum101
We are on day 5 today so maybe it will be lucky for us too!