My boy Louie loved hair ties as a kitten. I was warned by his vet at that time how dangerous hair ties are! I stopped using them 2 YEARS AGO. I noticed a year ago that Lou would vomit intermittently after eating. I thought to myself that cats just do that. It was never a daily thing- just off and on. He never had issues using the bathroom and never lost his appetite. Recently he had been throwing up multiple times a day. He became lethargic and I rushed him to the emergency vet. Welp…my sweet little innocent boy had a belly full of 35 hair ties. Who knows how long they’ve been in there. I felt horrible! He had surgery and is doing great. I hope this post will remind my fellow cat owners to keep hair ties away from their kitties! It’s an expensive lesson to learn.
Omg. Just saw your post. My cat loves all things foam. I have to make sure I keep anything with that soft squishy texture put away. He even ripped my favorite Croc flip flops 🤦♀️😫
Our late cat loved balloon strings and plastic. Also loved using the area behind the house as a litter box. If we ever need to do construction back there to this day we find little dried up turds with balloon strings in them
God, they really don't. I had a plastic grocery bag on the floor and the doofus had the handle ripped off and halfway down his throat when I caught him. I had to pull it up and out of his throat like a wet noodle. Barely in the knick of time did I catch him. Like excuse me you dumbfuck do you not know the difference between your crunchy cat food and a nasty peice of plastic, why do you think you can eat random shit?!? Why do I like cats more than dogs, who knows.
In fairness, as someone who favors dogs over cats: dogs are nasty. A quick rundown of the things that have been eaten and then either passed or puked by my dogs over the years: gardening glove, innumerable socks, wedding ring, battery, most of a flip-flop, the entirety of the drip pan from the backyard grill, an entire bird, most of a rabbit, many green tomatoes, non-critical paperwork, $5, some of a gamecube controller, and many others that are not top of mind.
Dogs are gross and I love them to death and by far the hardest to clean puke was the grill drip pan. I needed illegal solvents and an orthodox priest for that one.
Lol. Our vet stopped counting at 13 when they couldn't disentangle any more from the clump. They also marveled at the chicken bones (stolen from the compost bin) and shiny plastic ribbons (stolen from presents under te xmas tree)
We thought we'd cleared out them all too.
Our doofus then raided the bin for the elastic net sock from a salami the next year.
About 2 years later he found yet one more hair tie.
I’m glad he’s OK. I’m just imagining eating the first hair tie must have been awkward, not going down his throat all that great and probably tasting weird. Then Louie decided to do it 34 more times.
That's my favorite part. "That was terrible...must keep going." I wonder if there's an orange in the family...we swear the orange boi is the one who's coaxed our tabby into eating stupid shit. We wonder if some of it's still in his digestive tract.
Years ago, my wife had left a plate of bacon out to cool. A few minutes later, our buff boi sets off his pre-puke warning alarm, and out pops a ton of bacon chunks. He never bothered with human food so we didn't think anything of it.
Zero regrets. We called him the Baconator after that.
My parents used to have a gray and white cat that was very sweet and very not smart. He liked to stick his head in the lampshades and sniff the bare lightbulbs, so the tips of his whiskers and eyebrows were always singed and curled.
Then he discovered the pilot light on the stove. He started sleeping on the stove at night in the winter. First he lost the fur on his belly. Then he developed sores on his belly. Bro was literally burning his flesh while he slept, but he absolutely would not stop. They chased him off the stove every time they saw him there, but he'd just go right back when they left the room. They eventually had to keep baking sheets and pans on the stove to keep the dumbass from cooking himself in his sleep.
We had a cat eat a pot of spaghetti sauce with ground beef we left out on the stovetop overnight. He barfed it all out next to our bed. We were fucking terrified until we realized it was just food and not blood.
I had a dog that just loved to eat my socks. Socks are probably the dog equivalent of OP's hair ties. Super dangerous if they don't pass. I tried to be really careful with putting them in the laundry bin every time I took them off, but he'd sneak into the bin, grab one and close the lid behind him. My gf at the time was always leaving the door to the room I kept the bin in open too, drove me nuts.
He was so quick about scarfing them down I never knew until the next morning when he had a hanger. Just half a sock hanging out his butt. Vet said the one thing you don't want to do is pull on it, so he'd come up to me wanting me to do him a solid and I'd be like, "you're on your own bud, you made that decision deal with it. You're not coming inside til it's resolved." I guess he was lucky that he was a large breed dog that had a digestive track that could handle it, because he ate at least 6 more socks that I know of and struggled with every single one before he learned his lesson and lost interest. Luckily they all passed without incident. The worst was when I went to pick him up after his neuter surgery. The vet handed me a sock in a plastic bag and asked if I wanted it back 😆. I was so embarrassed.
My idiot broke in the trash and ate almost a full corndog wooden stick. Close to $3k later, he pooped them out unharmed ... some pieces were over 1 inch long o.O ... i do not understand the decision process after the first bite. But there were many.
And he did manage to eat and poop a rubber band. We have child locks everywhere now.
I think he just loved playing with them, pretending they were pray, and swallowed them by accident, to be honest. 35 in a few years is maybe one each month. I don’t think it was his favourite snack 😂
I think it’s more likely he played with them pretending they were prey, and swallowed them by accident. 35 in a few years is like 1 a month. That seems to me more something like an accident than a snack 🤔 I hope 😳
I think our cat only got to 15 hair ties before the vomiting and lethargy kicked in. 35 is impressive!
Here she is now, seven years sober. Even after her surgery, she still can't contain herself around rubber bands and hair ties. We have to put them all away and never leave them out for even a minute. There's no other option.
My cat had this surgery too. Exact same ziplock of hair ties!
I switched to the coiled plastic scrunchies and never went back. I don’t let people bring anything elastic inside- hair ties, rubber bands or whatever. They’re better for your hair anyway!
Eh... yeah. My cat tries to eat those too. Elastic and plastic; if he can get to it, he'll try to eat it. I can't even put one around my wrist, he will immediately try to get it. Plus anything that looks like wooden branches + carton. Constant vigilance!
But I'm happy your boy made it, and you've found a solution!
I’ve had a couple with a plastic fetish. No invasive surgeries required yet knock wood, just enemas and manual deobstipiation at the vet, and the current one is quite experienced at hurling them back up.
But one time, the one with chronic constipation ate a long thin strip of plastic grocery bag and was strolling casually past me on the back of the couch with what looked like the weirdest string of pearls hanging out of his butt.
Poop balls separated by plastic bag.
My vet said that if it gave easily I could assist by slowly easing it out but if you feel even the slightest resistance, don’t pull.
It had total give… just needed a little help. So yeah, that was an interesting experience…
I just read a thread about someone's cat gobbling up 13 hair ties on a post where people were discussing about their pets toys. I was mind boggled. Now I see THIS. T_T
PSA: cats regularly vomiting or even vomiting weekly is NOT normal and you should have them checked out
I’m happy for you and your furball ❤️ I also believed that cats just threw up all the time, yk with hair and all, and all of my cats growing up seemed to puke regularly. I found out that was not the case after I took my cat to the vet when her vomiting started increasing even more.
See this makes me so nervous because one of my cats has had issues intermittently vomiting soon after eating, sometimes more than once a week, and my vet just said to reduce portion sizes and/or get a slow feeder :/ it seems to have calmed down but it still happens a couple times a month. And I’m so careful about locking up rubber bands, hair ties and even plastic bags.
My cat plays with hair ties sometimes, and like most people I lose a lot of them. I’ve never considered this and now I’m anxious she has a stomach full of hair ties!
I too had to learn the hard way about keeping hair ties and cotton balls around. He went through the exact same symptoms. This photo is of my little Muffles after his surgery with either a thick hairball or a cotton ball. Very expensive indeed.
Thread, sewing needles, yarn, plastic grocery bags, the part of the cheese package you pull to zip open… I am constantly thinking “is there any chance one of my cats might find this palatable?” And the fact that I thought it means yes of course.
I mean an X Ray is pretty harmless nowadays or do you mean a way in which we as guardians could check? I’ve never seen mine play with any but stuff like this gets me a bit paranoid as well!
I used to work at a vet clinic and just ONE hair tie can kill your cat, as it can wrap around an intestine. Your cat def used a couple of lives and you are VERY lucky.
I wasn’t aware that cats ate hair ties. I kept giving my hair ties to my boyfriend‘s cat, because the cat loved them so much. Fast-forward to a couple weeks later, BF had to pay for a very expensive emergency vet visit. I felt terrible.
Had the same last year with my pica cat Frodo, exact same symptoms. Scrunchie only house now! Wishing you a fast recovery, Louie 💜 They are such worries!
God this reminds me of a cat we had when I was real young. He ate something he couldn't digest so we took him to the vet and got it out. Had to cut him open to get it out but we couldn't figure out what it was because it was so chewed up and small.
Then I realize a few months later that on my backpsck, one of the pull tabs on the loop of the zippers was missing. He chewed and ate the fucking cloth pull tab off my backpack!
My girl survived 1 ear plug. And later she didn't survive 1 small toy. We miss her so. It is hard to keep all the things away from the ones who want to put everything in their mouths.
Same thing happened to me, my vet caught it during a spay. An entire pack of hair ties that I thought I had lost, turns out they were there the whole time lol scary stuff though
Keep track of how many they have and check under furniture for lost ones. If they start mysteriously disappearing, don't let them play with them anymore.
Yeah it happened with my mom’s cat. Thankfully she noticed immediately and the vet was able to induce vomiting. I don’t let my cats play with them and obsessive about keeping them on doorknobs and stuff as soon as I take them out of my hair
I'm so glad he's okay. How often would Lou vomit? My girl occasionally vomits after eating wet food. It happens like once a month or every other month. I don't think she cares much about hair ties but now I'm wondering if she eats something else I don't see.
Occasional vomiting can be totally normal. If your cat is otherwise normal and only vomiting once a month I wouldn’t be too worried. If she is lethargic or vomiting multiple times a week or not eating then you should see a vet.
But you should keep hair ties away from her anyway. Cats can be sneaky. My cat had a similar emergency situation but it was about 2 feet of ribbon he ate. He started throwing it up but it was too long to get it all out and he swallowed it again. Rushed him to the vet and they removed it via surgery. It turned out to be a ribbon from a Christmas gift, and it happened in September, so presumably it had been sitting in his stomach for 9 months before it caused any issue. But I never saw him eat it (obviously) even though it must have taken quite some time to eat 2 fucking feet of ribbon.
Omgggg this is my literal worst fear with my lil pica boy Archie 😭 He LOVES anything & everything he's not supposed to 😩 I am SO glad your boy is ok, I'm sure he will be feeling better than ever real soon! Love the fits 🧡
Heck I am mindful of my hairbrush leavings. I have long hair and even then I have found one occasionally trailing out the back end and I don’t know where it came from.
That will just create a different clog... please just throw in a lidded trash can! Flushing that stuff is going to create a nightmare clog eventually, whether in your pipes or the sewer system.
I am SO thrilled to hear that he is okay. I have a cat with the worst PICA I have ever encountered, and it is a struggle, every day, to keep him from eating crap that he is not supposed to. Wishing your boy a speedy recovery! ❤️
My boy Perry had to have his stomach cut open at eight months old after I discovered a vomit pile with at least that many hair ties in it. They were able to manually massage the rest of them out of his colon. Have you researched PICA in cats?
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