Expand for full embedded album. Sorry no German version this time, just had to get this off my chest. Wall of text incoming.
I got really worried about her when I saw her completely miserable like this. Something was completely unusual: she came to me obviously looking for help. Usually when she is just not feeling well she keeps her distance, but this time she really communicated with me. Something was bugging her and she was pleading for help
It looked to me like she was desperately trying to regurgitate something. I instantly thought of a similar situation that my friend once told me about her brother: He had to rush him to the vet, who put Koda under anesthesia so they could remove a piece of grass that was too long to swallow and which thus was constantly triggering his gag reflex.
So I gave Miez a cat drink and luckily enough she barfed up a strain of grass. However, she kept on vomiting rhroughout the night and later in the morning (yeah, I did not sleep very much) began to breathe really bad. I rushed her to the emergency vet, which unlucky for the both of us was a painful 85 minutes to drive. She tried to complain but nothing much came out. There, they examined her two times - I guess just to make sure they would make the right call - and in the end decided to give her some anti vomiting medicine. It was really apparent that both employees were not expecting a cat so brave and calm, as they had asked me if she bites, and Miez kept my word when I assured them that she wouldn’t even scratch. Real wow-moments there I guess. On the drive home, Miez did not complain one bit, even though the medicine was not working yet. However, she was breathing calmly and not coughing as much. I kept a close watch on her the rest of the day until finally her coughing went away and only her swallowing of saliva stayed, which they assured me was normal. So I gave her some food, which in the beginning she wasn’t interested in but later could eat. I then gave her her second - anti-inflammatory - medicine. She now sleeps safe and sound and I’m really glad this day is over. Tomorrow morning we’ll go for a checkup.
Edit/Update: The checkup went fine. They were able to look really far down her throat, found nothing and saw that it isn’t irritated anymore. Miez got the same shot again and will get medicine throughout the weekend just in case. She didn’t even complain one bit, no meow, nothing. Brave, gentle Miez. I love you.
One time I woke up at ~3am to the sound of one of my cats really loudly chewing on something. Turns out it was an elastic hair tie from the last people that had lived in my apartment that had been hiding in the bathroom for half a year or I dragged it in somewhow. No idea. Anywho, she had chewed it in half and was just about to swallow it when I pulled it out of her gullet. It was about 4-5 inches long and covered in slime. Such a close call… would’ve had to get her stomach pumped or something. :|
My cat used to love to chase hair ties. We had teenagers so they were always around, the wrist-size skinny loops. She could even hold one in her teeth, lie down and hook it with her rear claw, and shoot it across the room, instantly chasing after it. Best toy ever!
Then one day she was in distress and horked one up, but still seemed unwell so I took her in. An exam, an ultrasound, and an endoscopy later they handed me a bag of 30 hair ties they’d extracted from her stomach.
They’re now banned from our home.
D: poor kitty! My vet at the time told me about all the hair ties they had to surgically remove from kitties bellies because they were tying up their intestines. :(
Yes they were lucky none made it past her stomach. We think she found a whole package at once. There was one previous time I had seen one in her poop, it had passed safely and she’d had no symptoms.