Late Sunday night stsrted normally. I did my chores including feeding my cat Rudy…but he didn’t want his dinner. He drank all the liquid around it (wet food and I would add water since he liked the gravy it made) but none of the solid. Usually he cleans the plate so I thought that odd. I offered him some dry food and he grabbed some in his mouth so I thought he was eating it. A few hours later, he made the dreaded noise-glurp glurp glurp-and started throwing up. First it was a tiny bit of food, then a hairball, then varying amounts of liquid and stomach fluid.
The 7th time (!!!) he threw up I noticed something that looked odd in the fluid. Turned out to be several small pieces of a rubbery plastic!
It almost looked like a twist tie…but there was no wire. I haven’t had any plastic coated twist ties in the house in a long time and I always keep small items off the floor because of the animals.
My next thought was a cord, phone charger or something. I took a flashlight and inspected every cord in the house…nothing was missing a part. I even looked on the porch since he did sneak out there last week for a few minutes but found nothing. I then looked everywhere, even under beds for anything that looked like that…or missing pieces…and nothing.
He proceeded to throw up one more time and it was nothing but mucous and another teeny piece of the plastic. By now I was worried as he’s never been sick that many times, and he never before actually ate anything that wasn’t some sort of food. I decided that if he wasn’t OK by mid morning I would call the vet and make an appointment.
I stayed up a couple more hours with him to keep an eye on him. The vomiting stopped and he drank some water, so we went to bed.
Monday morning he outwardly seemed like he was OK at first. Then I noticed that he hadn’t touched the pile of dry food. I realized there was quite a bit of it pulled out of the dish and across the floor, like he tried to eat and couldn’t.
His litter box needed changing so I did that around 8am. I noticed there was not any normal sized fresh poop, only older stuff and a inch plop of newer…usually he goes 2x or more a day as a rule and always by 9 am. Plus his movements were dark and solid and the small one was bright and soft.
Around 10am he started going in…and out…and in…and out…and in…and out of his box. Last time he did that he had a UTI so back in the box I went to look for any evidence he might have “left”. I realized he had not peed nor pooped yet. Since his box was the auto kind, it makes it harder to keep any eye when you’re watching for “movements”.
I unplugged the box and put half a puppy pad on top of the litter so I could watch what he was doing. Turned on the computer (which is next to his box) and started working online.
Another couple trips to the box and he finally pooped…except it wasn’t normal. It was only a tiny tiny bit and upon inspection it was mostly mucous. I watched him walk and noticed he was walking peg legged and stiff like a person does when they’re bloated. Picked him up and realized his stomach was harder than normal and slightly bloated.
Now I’m worried that there was more plastic and he’s got a blockage. The vomiting, lack of eating solid food , and bloating added up to worry for me. I called the vet and explained the situation.
His regular vet was booked up but one of the other vets that fills in was available at 215…so 215 it was.