Desperate for advice due to plastic incident

Hi All,


Sorry, I will make this short as it is sort of an emergency. And yes, I was in touch with my vet.

Here is what happened: Cat had infection from neutering right before we got him. It's in the final stretch of healing now, scap is falling of, vet was extremely happy today, so we're we.
Vet gave the second shot of calici vaccine today and everything seemed fine.

Later the afternoon I was working on my laptop, the boy was sleeping on the bed. At some point I notice he had woken up, is coming to me. He still wears his come for a few more days (as ordered by the vet) and I can see on it that he had thrown up. I clean him of it, then go to the bed where I see the area where he had thrown up and see.....A piece of plastic string from a helium balloon. We had a birthday party in the house more than two weeks ago and always kept it away from him, no idea how he could have possibly reached it now, completely unnoticed. String is around 7 inches long. We try so hard to keep everything harmful away from him, this was a disaster.
After first shock I called the vet asking for advice. She says to monitor him, check if he throws up again or if he is not eating...Stuff like that.

He seems pretty ok to me, is as always so I decided to give him his dinner an hour early just to check if he is hungry and being normal. He ate it, seemed very happy and was purring everything as normal so I am super releived. Had to leave the house for around 30 minutes, when I came back he seemed very calm tired, I checked everywhere but he had not thrown up again or gone no.2.



Since then he is in chill out mode (2hours). That is very unusual as now is the time he gets very active but he does not want to play, hardly wants to open his eyes, only lays on the couch and seems to nap. I even wanted to give him some more food just to see his reaction but he did not even care. :-((((

I am so worried now. On the one hand I am releived he threw up and spit the strong out but why is he being so strange now ? Is it because of throwing up earlier ? Is he just being exhausted from all the stress at the vet earlier today ? Is it the shot ? I remember when he got antibiotics a few weeks ago because of his infection, that he was very drowsy and tired all day long. Could it possibly be because there might be more plastic string in his body ???

I am feeling desperate and hope not for scolding and yelling (we blame ourselves enough) but for some advice or suggestions ? My wife seems to think that he is just very exhausted and we should wait until tomorrow morning. She gets up in 6 hours already for work and will check on him.

Any advice is desperately appreciated.

First, check the tongue.  Make sure there's no string wrapped around it that's not easily seen.  Strings and threads wrapped around the tongue cuts off circulation.

Second, check with the vet.  I think it can wait for normal business hours.  The concern is that it could be caught in the intestines and that would need surgery if true, so it's an emergency but it's not an "every second counts" emergency.

Thank you for the quick advice. I highly appreciate it. I checked his mouth and tongue. All clear. I will follow your advice and see how he is tomorrow morning and then decide.

@GermanCat how is your guy doing? Did you get in contact with the vet?

Dear Stefanie,

Thank you for your interest. Here is what happened.
After deciding not to go to an ER and wanting to go the next morning instead we went to sleep. Tuesday morning we checked on him and he seemed MUCH better.
First of all, he seemed a lot more awake than he used to. He reacted to us again and seemed to be following what was going on. Secondly, both his thirst and his appetite came back and he started eating and drinking normally again. Also, he went number 2 later in the morning which also seems to be a good sign. I checked for plastic parts in his poop but could not find any. So we felt like keeping an eye on him but did not see urgent reason to go to the vet right away.

Would you say this points into a good direction ? I think if there was more plastic in his body he would show any symptoms but so far no diarrhea or vomiting or not using the litter or decreased appetite.


He is also as cuddly and purring as we know him. The only thing I notice is that he does not seem very interested in playing with his balls anymore. At least not half as much as he used to like it, but for now I will blame it on the vet appointment and the stress he had later on that day. That and he occasionally just stands around on the ground sometimes, just checking everything out with eyes half closed, which we have not seen before. Does that sound alarming to you at all ,?