My cat ate ribbon! Ever had this happen?

[Jessica H]

I know this is not about my Cairns but I am really worried. I know alot of people have cats on here.

Mylo managed to eat about 8-10" of ribbon last night. I am really worried. I know this is not good but I was wondering if anyone had this happen and avoided the vet. My cat is NOT FRIENDLY with the vet at all and it would not be a good appointment. They have to sedate him just to give him shots. I spoke with the vet and they said to monitor him but I am at work. It is hard to tell which cat is eating and going to the bathroom because I have 2. I am going to go home, isolate and monitor him. I am supposed to go somewhere that I have to attend tonight and I am not even sure how long this would take to pass. I know cats die from this but they said the x-rays may not even show anything on them yet.

Any ideas? Suggestions? Experience with this?

Please help I am SOOO worried.

[Tracy A.]

A cat that I had ate about 6" of string that was from a rolled pork roast once. I only knew that she ate it because the string was hanging out her rear end. At the time I pulled it out, which in retrospec was not the thing to do... could have cuase more harm than good if it was caught. But she passed it. I did have the same cat eat yarn, but I made her throw that up with Hydrogen peroxide by putting it in milk.

[patticus55]

Dogs and Cats have been eating non-edible items for hundreds of years (especially in the wild).

They almost always do just fine. If it were a battery, I would worry.

Stay positive, I'm sure the little guy will be just fine.

[Hagar]

I had a Maine Coon cat that would eat string, ribbon etc., and never had a problem. There were some colorful "results" in the litter box though.

If the cat is in good health it shouldn't cause a problem. If it does cause any sort of obstruction, I'm sure you'll notice a difference in Mylo's behavior. In that case a trip to the Vet might be in order. But I think that would be rather unusual.

[Chewybacca]

I had a cat that ate dental floss once and only knew like Mysticol8 when I saw it hanging out the other end with poop attached so I actually smelled it!!! I as well pulled it out...so the cat wasn't dragging poo around the house...thankfully he was fine...hind sight is 20/20 as they say and I wouldn't do that now. Since that incident I flush my dental floss so no animal in my house has opportunity to be harmed... by that anyway!!

keep an eye on him hopefully it will just pass and then you can laugh about it

[Jessica H]

I had a Maine Coon cat that would eat string, ribbon etc., and never had a problem. There were some colorful "results" in the litter box though.

If the cat is in good health it shouldn't cause a problem. If it does cause any sort of obstruction, I'm sure you'll notice a difference in Mylo's behavior. In that case a trip to the Vet might be in order. But I think that would be rather unusual.

That is funny that you say that, Mylo is half Maine Coon. His mother was Maine Coon. He eats everything. Shoe laces, ribbon, chords from the blinds, strings, q-tips etc but I usually find the pieces he chews off right near the object he chewed it off from. This time he ingested it. I keep hearing about how it could kill him and wrap around his intestines or blockage.

Must be a Maine Coon thing.

[jetersmom]

My cat ate balloons with string tied on. I called my vet at the time and he told me to give felaxin and give a little more than one usually does for hairballs and she passed it all without event.

You could call the vet and ask how much specifcally you can give at a time.

[Jessica H]

I came home and Mylo is acting normal, eating, playing, chasing the other cat, playing with his ball. Just not sure if he has pooped yet. I went thru the litter box and no ribbon but I think it is too soon for him to pass it.

I am sure he has done this before, I just don't know about it....

[patticus55]

You are going to know right away if there is anything wrong. Cats have a good way of letting us know when they are uncomfortable

[jetersmom]

It may be a couple days...it was for my kitty. Do give some felaxin though, it can't hurt, can only help.

[Hagar]

Jetersmom, your mention of balloons reminded me of something I had forgotten about.

We had a very small Toy Poodle who loved balloons. My late wife would sometimes buy one of those helium balloons just for the dog. He would grab the ribbon in his mouth and run through the house with the balloon bouncing off the ceiling fans, doorways and anything else within range.

Chester, the Maine Coon would grab the ribbon, and bite it off just out of the dog's reach. Needless to say, since the balloon was for the dog, my wife was not the least bit amused, and had to keep adding to the ribbon so the dog could reach it. Of course Chester would simply bite it off again.

[pkcrossley]

i have indeed had something similar happen. a cat of mine ate a length of audio tape. my cairn found the cassette and destroyed it, and i found the lengths of tape all over the house. i had no way of knowing whether i had found them all or not, and could only throw them away and carry on. one of my cats had eaten a length of it. it was not immediately apparent. he acted completely normally. because i had three cats at the time, and their food was out all the time, i had no idea, at first, whether he was eating or not. same story with the cat box. after some days i confirmed that he was not approaching the food bowl. he still behaved perfectly normally. i took him to the vet and they were stumped --no temperature, no apparent irritations. the vet gave him another look and noticed, way down in his throat, the shiny end of the tape. the vet tried to pull it out, and some came, but a lot would not. x-rays followed, and then emergency surgery. they had to slice him from his throat to his tailbone to get the whole thing, which of course had been partly digested by then.

today he is extremely healthy. i try like crazy to never leave anything string-like, ribbon-like, tape-like anywhere where my cats can get ahold of it. the vet explained to me that cat tongues (unlike dog tongues) have little hooks on them, and that once a cat has the end of something like this on its tongue it almost has no choice but to swallow the length of it.

watch your cat very carefully. if he is eating and having normal bowel movements, all is probably well. but if there is anything unusual at one end or the other, take him in right away, and be willing to have the surgery if necessary. if you are quick enough, the vet may have other ways of extracting the material before it become a mass that obstructs the digestive tract.

[Jessica H]

He has been eating but I do not really have a way to tell if he is pooping. I have 2 cats. I know he is eating because I put a can of wet food out and he ate pretty much the whole thing. He is playing and acting normal. I think I am going to go buy another litter box tomorrow and isolate him so I can be sure he is pooping.

pkcrossley- How long did it take for you to notice this. This happened Thursday night and it is now Saturday night. Do you think he would have signs by now?

[pkcrossley]

it took me a week to be sure. after a few days i wondered, but i couldn't confirm it for something like 5 to 7 days. he was drinking alright (thus seemed to show no ill effects), but not eating or pooping.

[Jessica H]

He is eating and I isolated him last night and he pooped. Still no ribbon though? I would've thought it would have passed by now. I am going to isolate him again tonight.

[jimnconnie]

It does seem that Mylo would have passed that ribbon by now if he could. Any chance that he may have just hidden it somewhere where you haven't seen it? Maybe that's too much to hope for but it would sure be a nice answer. Good Luck!

[Jessica H]

GREAT NEWS!!!!! I isolated Mylo last night and sure enough there was a poop with a long ribbon in it!!!!! I am so excited! No more digging through poop anymore! It took 5 days to pass thru, I was surprised about that.

I am happy that he is going to be fine!

Thanks for all your advice everyone; even though it wasn't about my dogs, it was very helpful and comforting. I love my cats just the same as the dogs.

[jetersmom]

Excellent!!!!!!!!!

[jimnconnie]

Gift wrapped poop---------priceless!!!

[Jessica H]

It looked like a pearl necklace made of poops, the ribbon was even white...ok maybe black pearls....

GROSS, lol, had to say it.

[Tuckersmom]

So glad Mylo gave you a present! I know how you feel, Tucker ate a thumb tac - I was soo upset! I did the poop investigations for a few days too and whala...there is was!

[Jessica H]

Wow, a thumbtack? That must have been scary, I would've worried about it poking a hole somewhere. My friends horse ate a pen out of his pocket and it came out 6 days later. That could've gone bad as well...

[katsmac]

I had a cat once....that was walking across the floor and I noticed something dangling from her opposing end...at first I thought it was some hideous worm...but, then I noticed that it caught the light from the window and reflected a beautiful prism of lights against the floor....it seems kitty had munched on a little tinsel from the Christmas Tree. My vet told me to put a little petroleum jelly on kitty's paws once a week and this would help keep the furballs and the Christmas ornaments from causing any great concern. I also do this with all of my dogs too....my Chow thinks it's the greatest treat in the world....now I have to hide the Vaseline jar or she gets overly excided by the site of it. I would imagine a drop of mineral oil would do the trick too.