in article , Priscilla Ballou
at wrote on 11/23/03 10:58 PM:

In article ,
"Governor George Liquor" wrote:

Due to a guest in my home doing something I specifically asked them not to
do while my back was turned, Jack may have chewed about four or five inches
off the end of a "Cat Charmer" toy. This toy is a roughly four foot, double
ply strip of a fabric like terry or muslin attached to an 18 inch wand. The
offender insists she didn't see Jack swallow anything, but I searched the
entire house, and I can't find the chewed end. I know part of the toy was
missing, as it looks visibly torn and shorter.

It's been about an hour since Jack chewed the toy. In that time, he had a
bowel movement, ate some dry food, and has been playing and roaming around
normally. The only other time he ate a foreign object was when he chewed
the feathers off another toy. Then, the vet advised me to watch for him to
either vomit up or pass the feathers, and to see if he became listless or
stopped eating. He ended up vomiting them up and all was well. I am more
worried this time, as the object was larger.

What signs should I watch for if the object is causing him distress? I
assume he will stop eating. He's very vocal; will he yowl or cry? Will he
vomit without expelling the object? Anything else? I hope the signs will
be obvious. There is no 24-hour vet that I know of locally, and it's 12
hours until his regular vet opens.

He may well be fine. Despite my attempts to be vigilant, one of my cats
gets hold of my pot holders and oven mitts and chews on them (gets the
thumbs right off the mitts in a few sessions). Two or three
Thanksgiving's ago she earned the wrath of my mother by eating two holes
in my grandmother's damask table cloth. Never has she had one tiny
complaint about her tummy, and the vet pronounces her in perfect health.

Priscilla

I will say it seems that in order to eat part of a cat charmer the cat would
really have to chew it up, so *if* he ate it, I don't think it would be a
string type thing. Keep an eye on him. Take him in and see what the vet
says.

Karen