Oh no… Not again.
It was around 5th September 2023 (a year ago) that Akira had a string-swallowing episode. She had swallowed two pieces of strings and passed them out. But to be sure, I sent her to the vet’s, X-rays were taken and the first vet thought there was still some string in her intestines and was ready to perform surgery to remove it. Luckily a second vet checked the image and said it wasn’t a string. It was just the peristalsis of her intestines.
That episode ended without any surgery or further drama.
This morning, I was about to use Gerald’s e-collar when I noticed that the string (to tie it up) was gone. The e-collar was also on the floor of the pantry. I searched all over the garden and could not find the string. It is the same material as the ones Akira swallowed last year – it’s tshirt material (mostly cotton), fairly thick and about 20 inches long.
I got husband to help search and we scoured the entire garden but could not find the dastardly string.
Next, we scanned through hours of CCTV footage and finally found the culprit – it was Indra.
First, at around 1.30am this morning, we saw Indra pulled the e-collar down from the pantry counter to the floor, then she fidgetted with it and pulled out the string.
Sigh, I always make it a point to tie the string around the e-collar in a knot. I must have forgotten to do it last night.
Then, she played with the string for about an hour before taking her prized hunt to the garden to play.
The string was missing from the e-collar.
The CCTV footage:
That’s Indra playing with the string, with Akira watching closely. I had earlier thought it was Akira who had eaten the string since she has a history of string-eating, but it wasn’t.
Indra even tried to bury the string when she was distracted by a noise on the wall, but she didn’t do that.
After playing, she took a nap and no one took the string. We could see it on the CCTV footage.
Then she took it back to the pantry at played with it further. Akira wasn’t there, but Kai was. Kai didn’t get the string at all.
Then, we saw it – at about 4.35am, Indra finally swallowed the string. Tsk.
It’s this material and about this long.
I read that it takes 10-24 hours for food to pass through the digestive tract of a cat before it is passed out as poop. We have many hours to wait.
Meanwhile, I have consulted the vet for advice (waiting for response). I’ve given Indra some coconut oil too and I think Lactulose might help (Akira was on it the last time when she had the string issue).
I hope Indra passes it out. But we would have to wait for it to happen.
Sigh…it never rains, it pours. First it was Gerald, then Juno, then Lizzie, and now, Indra. It’s endless.
I checked back Akira’s records and she was given Lactulose twice daily, so I’m going to do the same for Indra. But for Akira’s case, she had already passed out both pieces of string even before I knew she had swallowed them. We did not want to take any chances in case there was any remaining string left inside, but as it turned out, there were no more.
Ever since Akira’s episode, I’ve been so careful with even the tiniest piece of fabric fiber, picking up everything I see and yesterday, I must have forgotten to tie a knot on this e-collar string.
10-24 hours, the internet says, for food to pass through and come out as poop. It’s only been 6.5 hours now. Still a long way to go.
None of our other cats eats string. Only the Blondies.