Cats eaten 10-20cm of ribbon. What should I do?

[WaitingforSummer77]

I was just playing with my cat, with some ribbon - the type that you use to wrap presents. He was chewing on the ribbon. He ended up swallowing it! I think it was about 10 - 20cm long.

I tried to get it out of his mouth before he swallowed it, but he ran away with it and I couldn't catch him.

To make things worse, his pet insurance policy expired on Saturday. I was supposed to renew it. But I haven't done it yet. Lesson learned.

What should I do? Will he be okay? Has anyone else's cat done anything like this? What happened? I'm worried.

Eek. I would be concerned about causing an obstruction in the bowel.
Ring the vet?

Keep him in and check the litter tray over the next couple of days. It will reappear - and if it doesn't go to the vet. I doubt it will do any harm, but you could ring them to check it out.

This would be an emergency vet call for me. Ribbon could get tangled and cause serious issues, or could pass naturally without them, but I wouldn’t be leaving it to chance. Call the vet and ask advice, and if they advise bringing the cat in, do it.

Phone the out of hours vet! My dog once ate a stocking and she shat it out (eventually) but cats are smaller and from experience the longer you wait with this stuff the worse it could be. It might be they can make your cat vomit just now, if you wait it might end up a surgery job. Also, did he definitely eat it? We had a panic with some plastic tape recently when one of ours ran away with it but I found it all chewed up under the bed. Hope he’s okay 💐

I think you need to ring the vet. A friend lost their cat after he ate string because of the internal problems it caused.

This happened to my cat except it was wool. The vet gave her medication to make her vomit but it didn’t work. We had to check poo for the wool and it appeared on day 3.

I agree emergency vet call. If you’re early enough inducing vomiting should work. If not, it needs veterinary assessment as can quickly kill them.

Definitely definitely don’t pull it out if you see any sticking out her bum. You can injure a cat badly by doing that.

Oh god we’ve been there. Emergency vet said give him lactulose to get things moving along. Then keep him and do not let him out of sight. Biggest risk was if it started to come out whole and the cat the pulls it. Advice was to have scissors ready to cut it off as it can out. Thankfully ours digested it and just had bright green poo for 2 days!

Please, please call your vets. This happened to my old cat with Christmas ribbon and she was on deaths door. Don't leave it too late. It will be expensive treat.

Thank you all for your advice. I've spoken to a vet nurse. She is emailing me a form to fill out and email back. Then the emergency vet is going to ring me. I feel terrible. I hope he is going to be okay.

I have just spoke to the vet. They are going to see him tomorrow morning. Thank you everyone for the advice.

My cat did this with laments one Christmas. It all came out fine the other end. But let's say I did not put it on the tree again 🙄

Lametta!!

This

Our cat did this, but 1m long. He'd stolen it from somewhere we had no idea until at 11pm he started screaming then tried to vomit it out. Vet came in to work and met us at midnight and did emergency surgery. We hadn't had him long and hadn't sorted insurance- £1500, but they saved his life. (He's been insured since and had nothing happen ever since, of course! ).

I hope your kitty is okay.

How did he get on?

@Toddlerteaplease Thank you for asking....the vet examined him and thought he seemed very well and she had no immediate concerns. She discussed the option of surgery but said that as he seemed so well, it may be better to wait and see if it passes naturally.

She told me the signs to look out for, that would indicate he needs to return urgently. It was a difficult decision but I have agreed to watch and wait. I would like to avoid putting him through the trauma of surgery if possible.

I'm struggling to sleep now though! I'm afraid to fall asleep incase anything happens to him while I'm asleep. It's nerve racking, but I'm glad that so far he is doing okay.

What are the signs you need to look out for?

With my cat she literally looked on deaths door. At this point we hadn't noticed she'd eaten anything so we rushed her to the emergency vets because of course it was Hogmanay so the normal vets were closed.

@lljkk the vet said that if he isn't eating, drinking or pooing as usual, if he is behaving differently or if he appears unwell in any way (e.g. lethargic), he will need to be seen urgently.

@Plump82 was your cat okay?

Well she ended up with pancreatitis, and her organs shut down but she then made a miraculous recovery. The vets called me to say on New Year's Day we'd need to make a decision on whether we say goodbye or not and by the next morning she made a massive u turn and pulled through. She was very unwell for a while after but lived to see another 8 years!

@Plump82 Wow! That's amazing!

Any progress OP? How's kitty?