Cat choking and yelping

I feel like an idiot for posting this. Sometimes Skylar will stretch his neck out and turn his head from side to side as if he is trying to swallow something. He will accompany this behavior with yelping or choking noises. Our place is never clean as despite our best efforts to clean everything, Skylar always seems to find little objects on the ground.

Trash, dirt, old food, odd little pieces of plastic, coupon clippings, etc. are his favorites things to chew. When I catch him chewing something, I will try to fish it out of his mouth with my finger and spank him lightly on the bottom to let him know that chewing these little things isn't good for him. Other than keeping my home clean, are there any measures I can take to help prevent Skylar from chewing things he finds on the ground?

We have catnip that we give him occasionally. We grow cat greens all the time, and he seems to enjoy those. There seems to be nothing though that will prevent him from chewing on all other kinds of objects. Plastic bags that our firewood comes in, seems to find it's way in his mouth.

Does anyone else have a problem with their cat finding things to chew and choking on them? Does anyone have a remedy for this? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

-Skylar's Grandpa

The only way is to keep things picked up....unless you want to muzzle your cat for the rest of his life.
Pretend like you have a crawling baby in the house.

when you have an animal the only one who can make sure there is nothing on the floor or anywhere else that can hurt it is YOU. if u know they will eat or chew what they find YOU must PICK IT UP AND PUT IT AWAY.

my cat loved plastic ANYTHING....there was some smell she liked in it and plastic bags with flaps hanging off the handles were the bane of my existence for 16 years. Using very strong large plastic shopping bags that were deemed "kitty-proof" that were put on the floor for her to run into and play games with add up to years of good memories, trying to swallow rubberbands not so much.

there is a reason it's hard to have roommates and a cat, if you need to find a cleaner home for him DO it

The behavior with the neck stretch and the choking sound sounds to me like a hairball expulsion.  One of my cats will let out a big "MEOWWWW" to announce her hairball and do the same thing with her neck.  It sounds like she is about ready for a fight with that meow.   The vet said some cats just do that.  That being said I would not leave anything on the floor that is harmful to your cat.  Maybe putting some cat toys on the floor with catnip in them may help.  You may want to also get your cat hairball syrup or treats as well to avoid any difficult hairball expulsions.   

My Kitty was doing this and I took her to the vet. It turned out she had stomatitis. They do exactly what you described. I pray it's not as this is a very serious condition. They usually treat this with total teeth extractions an even then only 30% cure. My Jasper had the total extractions and 3 months later the problem came back. They gave her a steroid shot and a pain shot and so far we've been doing good. Please have your kitty checked out to rule this out as this is an extremely painful condition. I pray your baby don't have this.

How often does this happen? There's a TCS member @cprcheetah that I think describes his/her cat's asthma like this. I would have Skylar checked out by the vet.

Of course, it is always good practice to keep chewables out of reach. My Boo likes to chew on plastic bags, and the truth is, I just have to keep all plastic bags out of his reach or tucked away in a cabinet or drawer. When Boo does, on the rare occasion, swallow a piece of plastic, he doesn't do what you describe. He actually tries to regurgitate it along with bile and whatever else.

Mosimom said:

The only way is to keep things picked up....unless you want to muzzle your cat for the rest of his life.
Pretend like you have a crawling baby in the house.

Click to expand...

Your right, we will start doing that.

I'm hoping it is a hair ball and nothing more serious. I've only seen him do it a couple of times. I hope he regurgitates anything that is too much for his stomach to handle. I'm gonna be extra careful about leaving knick-knacks and other small items on the floor. Thanks everyone for your input.

-Skylar's Grandpa

I meant to say "catching rubberbands before she swallowed them"

it's not easy to keep up with the little buggers but just like 2yos they really only have ONE life

sorry if I ranted and GOOD LUCK!

ps...later in  life my cat always did what u described when she had a hairball (or part of a bag) her system was trying to get out...if she just spit up bile the plastic remnant came up a little later (10 minutes) in a second round...if there is a third it is NOT GOOD

If your cat hasn't thrown up GOOD there is a chance there is already something stuck in his throat...closing the barn door and all that...

DON'T TRY TO GET IT OUT YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a little piece of plastic can get stuck and cover the airway......your cat will be gone within 5 minutes.

true, but the things that they tear off when you get a plastic bag sometimes float to the kitchen floor when you set down the groceries and my cat was on them like white on rice

luckily she never chocked on one on the way down...or up

It sounds like a hairball to me.

But as others on here have stated it only takes one tiny piece of plastic etc... For a cat to choke and die. :nod:

How guilty would you feel if this happened to your cat. Knowing that if you had been more careful about not leaving things lying around it wouldn't have happened

That is exactly what my Munchie does when he is having an asthma attack.  If you youtube Feline Asthma there are a couple of really good videos that show an asthma attack in a cat. 

Instead of getting a hair ball only product, I would use coconut oil. My kitty has never had coughed up hair balls (never has even coughed).
Do a google search "coconut oil cat" and you'll be amazed with all that it can do for your kitty beyond hair balls.

I hope he doesn't have asthma. I've only seen him do it a couple of times and mama says that she's never seen him do it. She says that she has seen him cough up a hairball though. I'm not sure what it is. I will be keeping a more close eye on him. Does anyone know what causes feline asthma?

Thanks for the Mosimom, I will check into it. I guess it's gotta be pretty tough to have to cough up a hairball.

-Skylar's Grandpa