Ollie ate his Cat Charmer toy

Ollie ate 2 feet of his Cat Charmer toy. I've thrown the toy out since. This happened on Saturday. I witheld food for the remainder of the day out of fear of impaction or obstruction, but when it didn't pass by Sunday morning I checked his belly for tenderness and his nose for fever - he was ok - so I fed him. Monday I took him to the vet because it still had not come out. They did an X-ray and concluded that his bowels looked normal (no gas pockets or anything that would suggest obstruction). The vet told me to just be patient and treat him normally as far as food, etc. He felt strongly that it would pass on its own.

It hasn't yet. I'm waiting. I feel awful that I left Ollie alone with that toy.

Here's hoping you've already got good news 'out' of Ollie - but please don't blame yourself - you are a wonderful 'father' and if you had had the slightest idea something might have gone wrong, you would have prevented it. All parents would, but sometimes all our vigilance just isn't enough.

Many prayers for you both.

Maybe the stomach acid has disintegraded it and it is no longer the same, so you wouldn't be able to recognize it...or do you mean to say he hasn't pooped since then??

If he does begin to pass it, just cut off the part that is showing...
do not pull on it.

Sending some pass the Cat Charmer vibes.

2 foot is an awful lot not to be causing any problems now... Are you absolutely sure it's not lost somewhere? That he didn't chew part of it off, drag it off and bat it under a heavy piece of furniture/appliance?

Originally Posted by strange_wings

2 foot is an awful lot not to be causing any problems now... Are you absolutely sure it's not lost somewhere? That he didn't chew part of it off, drag it off and bat it under a heavy piece of furniture/appliance?

Click to expand...

He hasn't thrown up, and he seems to be pooping, just no cat charmer cloth seems to be coming out.

There is only 1 room it could be in at all and I've exhausted looking everywhere in that room. I was hoping I'd find it and there would be no reason to worry, but it's not there. It's gotta be in him.

Also, I googled "Cat ate cat charmer" and related searches and found various consumer reviews where their cat ate the cat charmer too! So, Ollie isn't the first. Apparently, one cat had to have surgery.

Yeah, we left a wand toy out and Spooky ate a couple of feet of the string. She continued eating and going to the bathroom normally and we searched her poop for like a week - and the string never showed up. Maybe he chewed it well enough and digested it. That's the only thing we could think of with Spook.

....I just posted "you know you're a cat person when..." something about searching through cat poop for days to find the missing string.

he's just digested it and there won't be any problems!

Any update? And, yeah, you know life has changed when you wake up anxious to check the litter box to see if all is ok.

Tolly had a $400 hairball once that caused him all kinds of trouble, and surgery was looming. My vet decided to have me dose him with large quantities of hairball remedy and wait one more day (since I was able to give him sub q fluids at home to keep him going, it had been four days already) as surgery can only be a very last resort for him.

He did finally poop, in the middle of the night, and you can bet I was down there in seconds, picking apart that poop looking for the hair mat. I found it too.

Mazy cat, the Litter Box Police, supervised the whole Operation Hair Ball Poop.

I hope Ollie is okay now.

I wonder if some hairball paste might help him pass it?

Nothing yet. I haven't picked apart his poop though as I assume that 2 feet of tie-dye terry cloth should be easy to spot in the litter box.... or hanging out of his butt.

Coco did that once.
My sister gave my cats a teaser with ribns on it for christmas and I thought Cocos asthma was acting up.
She started throwing up and the whole ribbons came up.
Are you sure he did not throw it up somewhere.
Coco is no longer allowed to be near those kinds of toys.

At this point I will bet he either threw up, or didn't eat it at all...
for one of those options to be true!

My cats love wand/string on a stick toys, but I do not leave them out when we are not playing with them.

And as long as we are on the subject, never ever leave the ones that have elastic strings out. Elastic tightens as a cat pulls, and a cat could be choked to death, or lose a foot, if no one was home to catch it.

I speak from experience. We had just finished playing with the "gone fishin" wand toy made by Hartz, and I had left it on the floor. It only took a few seconds. Mazy was rubbing her face on the toy, you know how they do, going in spins, and in no time the elastic had wrapped around her neck. She jumped up to run away from it and of course it tightened immediately. I didn't wait to try to unwind it, I grabbed her and then scissors, and cut it. I still shudder to think what would have happened had I left the thing out when I wasn't home.

I already was in the habit of putting that thing away when not in use, that was a slip up, me leaving it on the floor like that.

And the reason I already was in the habit of putting it away (except this one time) is because years ago, before I knew better I came home to find Bibbs (rb 3/05) with a swollen paw from the elastic wrapped tight around her paw. I got her to the vet right away, and there was no lasting damage. By my gosh it's scary.

If Ollie has pooped numerous times and is eating fine, I think the danger is over. Either he somehow digested it, or it is in a pile of vomit somewhere.

That darn cat charmer toy. They love it, but why do they want to eat them? My cats bit off a good chunk one day while I was playing with them & proceeded to try to eat it. With 4 of them & 1 of me it was interesting trying to get it back. I did & now that toy stays put away unless I'm playing with them.

I put my fishing type toys away in a closet too - in acloset with a bi-fold door in my bedroom - one day I came home and learned that cats can learn to open a bi-fold door.

BTW, Target, Home Depot, etc, all have nice child-proofing aisles to browse in, should anyone be in the mood to redecorate their home.

I just tore apart the whole room again looking for if he hid it instead of swallowing it, or if he threw it up. I didn't find anything. I even looked in other rooms even though I don't think he's been in them since this happened.

I come to the same conclusion - either:

1) He is way more clever than me when it comes to hiding things.

or

2) It's still in him. (because I'd notice if 2 feet of fabric was in the litter box)

I have a hard time imagining that it has been eroded by gastric acid as from what I understand, the gastric acid ph level in a cat is only slightly lower (more acidic) than in humans. It's gotta still be in there in tact. I'm tempted to use hairball remedy to lubricate things in there a bit, but I should call and ask the vet first tomorrow.

I read online somewhere that some cat ate plastic tubing and it didn't come out for 2 months. So, maybe I just have to be patient with this.

I have cats hide toys in my dirty laundry all of the time, I've found toys between blankets on the bed and inside my pillow. I've even found a mouse toy stuffed into my pj pants (keep them on the bed during the day).

Last night I had a kitten scarf'n'barf her food into one of my shoes. So check any items that could be barfed into or could have a toy shoved inside them.

Any good news - or, what does the vet say?

On the other hand, dang, how clean your room must be by now!

My kitties like to eat their string/wand toys too... Mulder mainly. My parents keep getting out their DaBird and leaving it on the floor and not only does it get destroyed but it freaks me out every time that one of them is going to eat it and get sick! So far I've been lucky and I put it up every time I see it. My boys figured out how to open the folding closet doors too, I got one of those stick on refrigerator door clasps they sell in the baby section to keep it closed when I wasn't home.

LawGuy - I hope Ollie is ok! I don't know why he hasn't passed it yet if he did eat it, but if the vet can't find an impaction that's a good thing, right? for him!