Mattie has taken a turn for the worst. She had only about a 24 hour reprieve from her vomiting, thanks to a shot of Serenia, but this morning when I went in there to feed, she had coated the floor with her emesis. 🙁
They are suspicious of a bacterial or parasitical infection so they are keeping her and the kittens until Monday to chase this. She has been getting regular fluids here- but she runs through them so fast. She had 200 ml at 8:00 last night, and this morning, she is once again super dehydrated. They did run an x-ray and other than a lot of gas in her colin and an empty stomach- nothing jumped out at them. They are waiting for a fecal from her- plus they want to see how quickly she vomits after eating.
Through it all, she was the sweetest of kitties with them. As long as her kittens are close, she is temperament wise, loving and forgiving. Please send prayers that they find answers as to why she can’t keep nutrition down.
12:21 p.m.
The vet just called, they did a barium study and it revealed something stuck in the esophagus. The vet said it had the pattern of a herring bone. I don’t feed cats bones at all, and the vet said that it even could possibly be a snake? They are looking for the right tool that is long enough to reach down and take this item out, if not, they will put her under and open her up to take it out. Poor Mama kitty
Oh My Heavens! The vet just sent me this- this is what is inside her esophagus! No wonder she can’t keep anything down!
That poor girl. She must feel like she’s choking all the time.
She must have been desperate for something to eat, anything to eat.
I cannot quite make out what it is. Were the vets able to get it out with an endoscope or did they have to operate?
Poor kitty – but she’ll be so very much better now.
She was put out and they put several tools down her throat, trying to reach the item. Nothing seemed to be long enough, so they used a tracheal tube- one of the largest ones to push this down into her stomach. It could either be she got ahold of a fish or she ate a snake? Since the object is now in her stomach, her acids will take care of destroying it and she should be okay now. They didn’t want to cut her because of where it was located. She and her babies will stay at the vet until Monday, they will run a new barium study on Monday and see if the object is still visible. Now I know why she was drinking so much water, yet still needed fluids to stay hydrated and why she threw up all over the place.
What good veterinarians you have!
Judy is right. That was excellent veterinary skill and planning. I am impressed. But you are to be congratulated too. Cats around my house throw up so much that it almost becomes normal, and I could have easily overlooked it, and just reached for another rag to wipe it up, rather than taking her in to the vet and to go to the expense of the testing. Salute to you both.
OMC, how awful that Mattie has that stuck in her throat! I hope the vets are able to take it out the least invasive way possible.
The problem was the object wasn’t stuck in her throat, it was in her esophagus which is the tube that leads to the stomach. The esophagus is tricky because of where it is located (by the spine and heart) which is why they didn’t want to risk surgery. They tried several different types of tools to grab ahold of this item- but none were long enough. Because the tracheal tube was so big and slicked up- this pushed the object down into her stomach where hopefully the stomach acids will make short work of it.
I sent this bizarre and fascinating x-ray photo to my feline specialist and she admitted she was impressed, she had never seen anything like it before! Had it been in her throat, it would have been easier to grab- but Mattie would have been choking and trying to breathe, somehow for some reason it got stuck after it went down her throat and before it reached her stomach.
I have to think, she must have been starving when she found this and gobbled it down. Yesterday before the vet visit, I had tried to give her grass to settle her stomach. Usually that works for cats who vomit. Not this time- it wasn’t stomach upset- it was a stomach stalled and the passage of food to the stomach being blocked off.
When I see her tomorrow, I will promise her, no more periods of desperate starvation. We may not have a lot of canned cat food at the moment, but what we have now belongs to Mattie and her babies who just got all their baby teeth showing at the gumline.
Well, that’s one for the books! Here’s hoping Mattie is A-OK now!