My String-Eater

This Saturday, we discovered that Otis ate Zach's drawstring to his pajama pants. It started with him vomiting about 12 inches of string in the morning. He was pretty lethargic, vomited again later that afternoon, and refused dinner - all of which are highly unusual for our energetic, food-crazed cat. So, off to the vet he went and after several x-rays and a barium study, we saw there was still more string in his stomach.

We returned home late in the evening with the plan of returning for more x-rays the following morning to see if the string would pass through the intestines. Fortunately, Otis managed to vomit up two more feet of string! He continued to feel pretty sick the rest of night, so we were still pretty concerned that perhaps something else was still in there.

We had a rather sleepless night, but I woke up and showered and found Otis to be much more alert and interested in his food in the cabinet. Thankfully, by 11am, he was pretty much back to his normal self and x-rays revealed no more string in the stomach and the remainder of the barium was passing normally! What a relief!

After we got home today, wouldn't you know he wasted no time in returning to his normal counter-surfing behavior and I was able to catch him in the act of eating a rubber band that he found (from the produce we bought for dinner yesterday). This cat is determined to keep us on our toes...

Oh, did I forgot to mention the fact that while all of this was happening yesterday, my parents and Zach's parents were visiting?! Nothing like leaving the party you're hosting to take your cat to the vet. Thanks to all of them for understanding ;) Thanks to my husband who finished cooking the meal, and helped with the clean-up. It sure was nice to return home to a clean kitchen!

Big thanks to Dr. G, who came out to the hospital to see us on Saturday and Sunday. We are so grateful!