My cat ate a piece of her silicone lick mat, should I be worried?

[lwndlnd]

So, I fed my cats using their lick mats, then I left two of them in the room with it and went to my cabinet to work. Two hours later I came back to them and found lick mats on the floor with some parts missing. These pieces are nowhere to be found, so I'm pretty sure they ate them. Here's the picture (sorry for the bad quality, my phone is under repair now, so I'm using my old one). The hot pink lick mat is whole, all the other ones are not. I'm not sure if one or two of my cats did this, but I'm panicking. I gave them pumpkin and broccoli puree to add some fiber so they could pass silicone with their stool safely. I'm pretty sure they've ingested it with small pieces, but I can't be confident they didn't ate any large piece that can cause blockage. I will monitor them closely anyway. I let them outside and they mostly use toilet outside, so I can't really control their stool, but I'll try my best. For now (it's been almost 3 hours since I found them) they are doing fine and acting like themselves. I hate myself for not thinking it through and letting all of this happen. I hope my babies will be fine. I'm so anxious and I have some questions for you guys

1. How fast should the silicone pass through their system or how fast should I see signs of a problem?
2. Should I feed them or let them fast for 8-10 hours (found that on some vet forum)?
3. It's not really a question, but still. If someone has experienced something like that with their cats, please let me know what was it and what was the outcome. Also kind words will be appreciated, cause I'm a mess rn.

Thank you for reading this. I hope you're doing fine

 

[susanm9006]

That seems to be a lot of silicone. The safest thing to do is to contact your vet immediately to get their opinion on next steps.

 

[Margot Lane]

I’d see a vet as well. Actually feel as if I’ve been reading a lot of threads lately about cats nibbling on rubberized items and swallowing hair ties and rubber bands.…leads me to wonder if it’s safer just to eliminate them all, as much as possible? Would be useful hear your vet’s feedback, lwndlnd. (I will say I haven’t read any threads here yet where the cat did great harm to itself!). Good luck!

 

[lwndlnd]

That seems to be a lot of silicone. The safest thing to do is to contact your vet immediately to get their opinion on next steps.

I’d see a vet as well. Actually feel as if I’ve been reading a lot of threads lately about cats nibbling on rubberized items and swallowing hair ties and rubber bands.…leads me to wonder if it’s safer just to eliminate them all, as much as possible? Would be useful hear your vet’s feedback, lwndlnd. (I will say I haven’t read any threads here yet where the cat did great harm to itself!). Good luck!

Thank you. I will contact my vet tomorrow, cause now it's 1:00 AM over here. And of course I will see my vet immediately if I notice even the slightest sign that something is wrong. For now everything is good and I hope it remains so. I will definitely throw that lick mats away and won't be getting any anytime soon. Actually, I've only purchased these a few days ago lol. I think lick mats themselves are not an issue, but leaving a cat alone with these when there are still some wet food is not a good idea.

 

[Margot Lane]

Thank you. I will contact my vet tomorrow, cause now it's 1:00 AM over here. And of course I will see my vet immediately if I notice even the slightest sign that something is wrong. For now everything is good and I hope it remains so. I will definitely throw that lick mats away and won't be getting any anytime soon. Actually, I've only purchased these a few days ago lol. I think lick mats themselves are not an issue, but leaving a cat alone with these when there are still some wet food is not a good idea.

Good luck! I’ve never personally had experience w these mats so am not necessarily “anti mat,” I just use hand towels under my sloppy boy’s food bowl. I think though I’d toss ‘em…hard to train a cat not to nibble.

 

[lwndlnd]

Good luck! I’ve never personally had experience w these mats so am not necessarily “anti mat,” I just use hand towels under my sloppy boy’s food bowl. I think though I’d toss ‘em…hard to train a cat not to nibble.

My vet said to monitor my cats for any signs of obstruction like vomiting, diarrhea, straining to poop, lethargy etc. If any will be noticed, I'll rush my cats to the vet right away. My vet thinks that they must've ingested multiple small pieces, which is much better than large ones although there is still some risk it will cause the problem. She said that it's good that this is silicone from a lick mats, as it's non-toxic to cats and the only thing we need to worry about is obstruction or blockage. And also she mentioned that silicone is quite soft so hopefully there will be no problem for my cats to pass it through their GI tract, especially when there are still no signs something is wrong with them. I love my vet sm, because even tho she stated all the risks pretty clear, she somehow managed to calm me down and give me some comfort and support. My cats didn't puke, they are very playful and eat well. I hope it will remain so, but I still need to monitor them very closely at least for a couple of days.

 

[di and bob]

It DOES look like small pieces tore off, as long as they are acting normal, eating/drinking/using the litter box, they should be able to pass them easily. Please try not to worry unless they start vomiting or quit eating. I would bet they will be fine!

 

[lwndlnd]

It DOES look like small pieces tore off, as long as they are acting normal, eating/drinking/using the litter box, they should be able to pass them easily. Please try not to worry unless they start vomiting or quit eating. I would bet they will be fine!

Thank you so much! They are acting absolutely fine now!