If you remember, the Blondies are all string-eaters.
Akira swallowed two strings before and luckily she managed to pass them out, but I did not leave it to chance. I took her to the vet’s for ultrasound to monitor the movement of any possible remnant strings – luckily there were no more and it’s all thanks to a vet who read her ultrasound correctly. Another vet had earlier mistakenly thought there was still remnant strings and almost wanted to open her up to remove them!
Then, later, Indra swallowed a very long cotton string and luckily we had CCTV, so we combed through hours of footage to identify who exactly was the string- swallower. I really thought it was Akira, but no, it turned out to be Indra. She played with the string for three hours before finally swallowing it. Our vet explained that due to the rough texture of their tongue, once the string is in the mouth, somehow they won’t be able to spit it out, so they will naturally swallow it.
I fed her virgin coconut oil and gave her laxatives to pass it out that morning, but nothing happened.
So, again, I took her to the vet’s as soon as possible for an evaluation and she went through an endoscopy the next day (after sufficient fasting) to have the string pulled out. Luckily our vet could do the endoscopy so no invasive surgery was required. Indra was as good as new right after that. From the X-ray, our senior vet said there would have been no way she could pass out that long string as it had crumpled up and was stuck in her stomach, blocking the passage to the intestines.
It was a wonder that Akira managed to pass out two pieces of string (of the same material) when she was not even one year old at that time. But those strings were much shorter in length. The string that Indra swallowed was from the e-collar tie which she pulled out.
So, our Blondies are crazy string-swallowers.
String-swallowing is extremely dangerous, folks. Please don’t take it lightly. A senior vet told me a long time ago that his friend’s cat died because the cat swallowed thread and that friend was a vet herself. Luckily, endoscopy is available now, exactly like how it is done for humans.
Photos of Indra’s endoscopy: https://animalcare.my/2024/09/16/indras-endoscopy-photos/
So, ever since then, I check Bunny’s Place for possible strings, threads and anything long every day.
And lately, it’s the sisal rope from the cat tree:
See this? I monitor this daily and have been cutting off the sisal rope which has been pulled out.
Indra, the string-eating culprit.
This is Kai, the eldest sister. They all love scratching on the sisal rope, but the danger is that the rope will be pulled out.
Juno also loves playing with strings and she chews on them. So, I have to watch out for her too.
FIC (or UTI aka FLUTD or just the inability to urinate) are medical emergencies, so is string-swallowing. Always treat them as medical emergencies.
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