(Part 1 here, when it started)
At 215pm, I was in the vet’s office with my cat worried and dreading what they would find. I suspected he was blocked, and since it had never happened before (not with bowel movements) I knew it was not good.
His regular vet was not available but the other vets that are there have been good so finally it was our turn to go in. I explained what happened to the vet assistant and had brought along the baggie of plastic pieces. She thought they looked like a twist tie too, but I told her no metal found and I haven’t had anything with that kind of tie in the house in weeks. At first she thought I had found them in the litter box so I had to re explain it was in his throw up. I also emphasized that he had never eaten non food objects before except grass and straw!
A few minutes later the vet came in and felt around his stomach. I explained the symptoms again and how he was uncomfortable looking to me, even though if you didn’t know him he looked OK. Since he did not feel anything outwardly wrong, he asked if I wanted an X-Ray and blood work, which I agreed to. One thing I like about this vet office is they do not push services on you and always ask what you want done.
They took him back and did the x-ray and blood draw and then brought him back to me. As typical of most animals, he was not a fan of the vet office and liked to retreat into his carrier, so I let him hang out in there while we waited.
A few minutes later, the vet came and asked me to come look at the X-Ray with him as he wanted to show me something. This is usually not a good sign in my experience! Upon looking at the X Ray, I saw large sections of air in his intestines in several places. There was nothing visible as a blockage, but only metal or bone would show up on an xray and not plastic. His stomach was also still full of food, despite having thrown up so much and not eating enough for me to be able to tell.
The bloodwork was ready and there was nothing “off” indicated in it at this point. The vet said he wanted to try a strong laxative and give him 24 hours and redo the x-ray to see if anything had moved along in his system. I asked what options we had at this point…he winced and said basically just the laxative. I already knew a 16 year old asthmatic cat was not a good candidate for invasive surgery and he confirmed it. I asked about massages etc and he said to try it…but no solid food, only liquids as he needed to see if the food progressed along the track.
The vet asked about his litter box as I had mentioned it was the auto type and asked how I would keep an eye on what he did. I explained I had already unplugged the box and put down a puppy pad, and Rudy was good at using the litter box even like that. This satisfied the vet.
So we went home with 3 doses of Lactulose (laxative) and a strict “no solid food” order. Upon arriving home, instead of running around like he normally did, Rudy just went up on the couch and went to sleep. I woke him up for the first dose of medicine which did NOT go over well-apparently it tasted bad. He did not once ask me for food, which was not like him-usually 2 hours and he’s begging.
Later that night when it was almost time for bed and I was reading in bed, he came up and laid down next to my leg. I started petting him and realized his stomach was getting harder and he was breathing a bit harder than normal, even taking into account his asthma. I petted him as long as he would let me and fell asleep with him against my head.