We need your help, the vet is stumped

Simone is a 7 month old Siamese mix. She has been to the vet 3 times in the past 4 days. They are recommending exploratory surgery as the next step, please read her story to help me decide if this is best. Over the past week, we have noticed that she is walking a little funny, as if her back legs weigh 10 pounds. She will walk a few feet and lay down or sit. She has been licking around her lower abdomen, legs and genitals. She is very lethargic compared to her old self. She has thrown up 3 times in the past week, some regurgitative, some violent and heaving (though still containing food). Upon examination, the vets have found nothing. Her blood work was perfect, they could detect no pulled muscles or pain upon palpating her stomach. She had a bit of a temperature which has returned to normal. The x-rays turned up nothing too unusual. Her large intestine was filled with feces, which she has yet to pass. It is believed that she may have swallowed something like a string, though nothing obvious showed up on the x-ray other than some suspicious gas pockets. (It is very possible that she has considering the toys that she plays with and the new cat condo we just bought had many strings that I caught her and her brother chewing on). I know she is not well, but is it really best to cut her open in HOPES of finding something?? She is my world, please help me. Thank you for your wisdom and time.

Hi!
What an awful situation to be in. I had a similar scare earlier this year and it turned out to be wads of string causing a blockage.
If it is string, often times the cat will get it wrapped around the back of the tongue so that it pulls taut and won't pass. Maybe you could have your vet check this area and see if there is something there and if it could be cut to see if it (if it is string) will pass on it's own. Pippin had string caught around his tongue and also blocking his intestines. I wonder if they had cut the string if it would have passed. I'm not a vet, so I don't know. It's another option before surgery though.

My next step would be exploratory surgery. I know first hand that waiting too long, if it is a blockage, can cause a lot more problems in the long run like lacerated intestines which, with my kitty Merry, led to his death.

Good luck with his! My thoughts are with you and my crew is pulling for your girly.

Devlyn & the crew

She is young, she sounds quite sick, sometimes surgery is the only option. I had a kitty like this once, turned out she was eating plastic bags After that all shopping bags were put in a drawer. they found a huge ball of plastic in her

Unfortunately it's really expensive, but the surgery is the way to go. My Oliver swallowed a small length of ribbon last spring, and we opted just to go for it even though it was quite costly--but I can't imagine how I would have felt if we hadn't done it and something bad had come of him because of it.
If finances are a problem, see if your vet will agree to a payment plan, or you could always open up a new credit card--most cards nowadays give you about 6 months of interest-free time--which can help you pay things off slowly.
Good luck and keep us posted!

My siamese mix had many problems with diarhea and being lathargic. We took him to the vet and after a few days we noticed he had passed a thick hair rubberband that I use to hold up my ponytails. Since then he has returned to normal, although his butt is still really irritated and he licks it a lot. See my thread itchy butt?? if you like. Good luck!

Her x-rays have been viewed by 3 doctors. Two of them agreed that she needed to be cut open. The head doctor said he didn't see enough evidence to warrant surgery at this time because she hasn't been vomiting that much (she ate 3 times yesterday and kept it all down). I think it may be digestive related but I don't know how. She finally had a bowel movement yesterday and it gave her a complete burst of energy - she was running around like a wild woman! The vet said ultrasound is a good option but it is 400 (is that normal?). She has eaten Science diet since I adopted her, should I try and change it to see what happens? Is there anything else I can do myself to explore this?

Could this just be bad constipation? If she finally pooped and then felt better then perhaps thats what it is, especially since they saw lots of feces in the xray. But you would think this would be an easy diagnosis? Has anyone suggested laxatives or an enema?

It absolutely could be constipation. It could be a partial blockage that she is trying to pass. I picked her up from the vet just now, she is slightly drugged from surgery prep. The first thing she did when we got home was drank a bunch of water (a good sign right?) She has kept it down so far. I am experimenting with a hypo-allergenic food to see if that makes a difference. I was thinking of feeding canned pumpkin to try and soften her stool to see if that helps her out. Do you know of a homeopathy book for cats??

I would ask the vet about doing anything to help her have a bowel movement. Tuxedo was very constipated once, and they gave him an enema, but that was after ensuring that there was nothing causing a blockage (how, I'm not sure, but it didn't include exploratory surgery. The problem is that plastics don't necessarily show up on an X-ray). If she's given something to stimulate a bowel movement and there is something causing a blockage, this could potentially cause other problems, especially intense pain.