I don't know if this is an emergency or not because Pumpkin is acting just fine....

[dianajune]

This is very good to point out. It has been over 48 hours now so he should very well be fine. No obstruction from the paper he ingested.
I would take him to the vet though if you are suspecting he has IBD.

Pumpkin is going to the vet soon for his checkup. I'd take him before that but my wheelchair needs to be repaired, which will be in another week. If there was an emergency and I couldn't take him to his usual vet in another town, there is someone nearby he could go to.

I thought about switching but that's the subject of another thread. I love his vet....they always take good care of him there but now that we moved, the commute is farther, which he hates. I have to take him on the bus.

 

[heatherwillard0614]

Pumpkin is going to the vet soon for his checkup. I'd take him before that but my wheelchair needs to be repaired, which will be in another week. If there was an emergency and I couldn't take him to his usual vet in another town, there is someone nearby he could go to.

I thought about switching but that's the subject of another thread. I love his vet....they always take good care of him there but now that we moved, the commute is farther, which he hates. I have to take him on the bus.

You are doing great with him. Especially with the paper incident. I know sometimes when I don't have the means to do something for my cat exactly when I want to it makes me feel bad. But you are doing great. It is ok that you can't get him to the vet until you get some things sorted out as it isn't a true emergency. Do you already have an appointment to get your wheelchair fixed? If so you could call the vet and try to set his appointment for the next day or so.. I say this because at least in my area vets are so busy and appointments are weeks to months out. So your wheelchair being done in the meet week if you call the vet now to set his appointment you could maybe make it for the next couple days after. If that is a possibility.
Like I said and I'll say it again because I think this is important. Please don't let things like not being able to take him to the vet right now upset you. I can tell by your original post if it had been an emergency you would have figured something out. You are doing great. Keep that in mind

-With love from one cat lover to another

 

[lisahe]

Agreeing with everything heatherwillard0614 says! It sounds like Pumpkin is doing fine and there's no need to worry. That's not to say that I don't worry when our cats do similar things. I do. Ireland also shreds paper -- paper from Chewy boxes is her favorite and yesterday she shredded some paper in my office -- but she doesn't eat it. Shredding paper seems to be a stress reliever for her. She loves doing it and is very industrious. More worrying, though, is that she has eaten bits of shoelaces, ribbons, rubber bands, strings, and cat toys. Watching the litter box is no fun (though it's a relief when I find pieces of stuff) and I always worry about her, watch to make sure she's eating, and so forth. Our other cat licks plastic bags and I'm afraid she'd gnaw on those so we have to keep them in drawers. Many of the things that Ireland chews are banned from the house: Rubber bands go in the trash immediately and the trash is kept in a little cupboard... I could go on and on! Fortunately, both cats have calmed down a lot in middle age! Even so, the measures we've taken to keep those things out of the cats' reach help us humans worry less.

I'm glad Pumpkin is doing well! And hope he doesn't decide to chew on more heavy paper soon.

 

[Caspers Human]

Back when I was in college, I had a cat that used to like licking the emulsion from my photographs.

I was taking a class in photography and, one day, I brought a bunch of photos home from the lab and laid them on a table so that I could organize them before turning my project in the next day. I went to bed and, when I woke up the next day, I found that a couple of the pictures were ruined! Whole sections of the image were missing as if somebody had wiped the image right off the paper! Some of the edges were chewed up, too!

My project was due that day and I didn't have time to reprint them so I took them to the prof as-is. He took one look and laughed, "You have a cat, don't you?" "Yes," I replied, "his name is 'Jerry.'" The teacher told me that photographic emulsion is made from fish gelatin which can be attractive to some cats. He said that he had a cat that did the same thing.

We had a good laugh and I promised to reprint the images if I would be allowed an extra day on my deadline but the prof accepted them as they were.

I had to keep all my photos put away, from then on, so that the cat couldn't lick them but he did, eventually, get to a couple more. It never seemed to hurt him nor did my prof's cat have any ill effects. I can't imagine that the stuff would have been any good for them but the teacher and I agreed that the amount of substance on an 8" X 10" piece of photographic paper would be so small as to have no effect. It would be less than an eyedropper full... 2 or 3 cc. at most. Besides, he didn't lick the whole paper clean. Probably only a quarter of the page.

Bottom line: Cats get into stuff they shouldn't. You have to keep things put away so that they can't.

I wish I still had those licked up photographs! I tossed them out after the project was finished, thinking that they were ruined.

Who would have thought that, thirty years later, they'd be valuable as mementos of my former cat?

 

[heatherwillard0614]

He took one look and laughed, "You have a cat, don't you?" "Yes," I replied, "his name is 'Jerry.'" The teacher told me that photographic emulsion is made from fish gelatin which can be attractive to some cats. He said that he had a cat that did the same thing.

We had a good laugh and I promised to reprint the images if I would be allowed an extra day on my deadline but the prof accepted them as they were.

I have to say, this is absolute heart warming. A lot of professors do not care one way or the other. Things need to be perfect and a deadline is a deadline.
You must have had a great prof. For one he understood personally and he didn't hold it against you, even accepting the photos that were "ruined"
That is a professor that would make a difference in his students lives.

Like you said cats can and will get into things we just have to try to keep things of interest to them picked up and away. Like you bringing home photos him licking them, then from there on out you tried to keep them away.. on the other hand another cat may not lick something like that and it would be fine left out.
You don't truly know until it happens. Then that is when we gotta just try our best to be mindful of whatever it may be.

I absolutely loved reading this. Thank you for sharing your experience.

 

[Caspers Human]

It was the New England School of Photography, circa 1990. I'm sure that I'm not the only one whose cats had gotten into their stuff. I wouldn't say it was common knowledge in those circles but more of an open secret.

Besides, I couldn't have known until it happened. Who stops to think that photographs are made from fish, let alone even knowing in the first place? You're also right. Some cats would be attracted to the fish gelatin while others wouldn't. It's almost random chance.

When I made those photos, back in the day, they were still probably a little bit wet. There was a drying machine in that lab. I did use it, for those photos but, still, they would have been a tiny bit tacky on the surface. That's why I laid them on the table. I didn't want them to stick together. It was, probably, that bit of moisture that attracted Jerry the Cat.

I've thought about this, over the years, because I still keep a darkroom in my basement and I do have two cats. The basement is off-limits to cats, primarily for this reason.