A CHESHIRE vet is urging pet owners to be vigilant after a cat swallowed string from her scratching post and needed emergency surgery.
Two-year-old Lottie underwent surgery at Beech House Veterinary Centre in Warrington, which is part of Willows Veterinary Group, to remove three metres of string from her stomach and intestines.
Thanks to the care, skills and expertise of the team at Beech House, and its sister practice Station House Veterinary Clinic in Trafford where Lottie was first examined, the cat has made a full recovery.
Owners Megan and Amy Higgins-Bailey rushed Lottie to Station House Vets when they became worried that their much-loved pet was refusing to eat, as this was completely out of character.
Vet Thomas Rees examined Lottie and X-rays showed she had swallowed something, so he referred Lottie to Beech House, which provides a 24-hour emergency service.
At Beech House, vet Laura Potts performed surgery on Lottie and was surprised to find that the foreign object inside the cat was a very long piece of blue string.
Laura said: “One end of the string was caught under Lottie’s tongue, then it went down her throat, into her stomach and all the way through her intestines. It seemed to go on forever.
“You have to be extremely careful when removing long pieces of string that have been swallowed and you can’t just pull on one end, because it can act like cheese wire and cut through the intestine. To remove it, I had to make five separate incisions in the intestine and gently tease out as much string as I could before cutting it and then moving to the next section. Once the intestine was clear, I could carefully remove the piece that went from her mouth to her stomach.
“The surgery went well and Lottie is very lucky that her owner took her to the vet as soon as she noticed something wasn’t right, because if the string had been left inside her for any longer, the intestine could have ruptured and caused life-threatening septic peritonitis.
“If cats play with string or ribbon it can get stuck under their tongue, and then it can get swallowed accidently. It’s always important to be aware of what your cat is playing with and to remove any potentially dangerous items, and it’s a good idea to check their toys regularly for wear and tear and if they have loose bits of material or thread to throw them away.”
Lottie, who was rescued by Megan’s family after being abandoned as a kitten, is now back home in Hale and has made a full recovery. Megan says she has matched the piece of string she swallowed to the cat’s scratching post.
Megan said: “I’m very grateful to the teams at Beech House and Station House for the incredible care they gave to Lottie and for saving her life. She’s now back to her old self and is full of energy and eating well again, which is so lovely to see.
“I took her to the vets because she wasn’t eating and when I tried tempting her with her favourite treats cheese, chicken and tuna she just turned her head away.
“She does like to chew or play with shoelaces or ribbon and when the vets told me she’d swallowed something, I expected it to be one of those things. I was shocked when they removed such a long piece of string.
“The string was blue, which is the same colour as the string that’s wrapped around Lottie’s scratching post, and when I checked it, I could see that some of it had frayed and come away. I’d urge any cat owners to regularly check their pet’s scratching post and to replace it if the string has come loose because I’d hate this to happen to anyone else’s pet.”
Beech House Veterinary Centre is open 24-hours a day, seven days a week and offers routine and emergency care. It is the only out of hours veterinary facility in the Warrington area. Beech House and Willows Veterinary Group are dedicated to providing the very best care to pets and supporting clients to keep their animals happy and healthy. They are part of VetPartners, which owns some of the UK and Europe’s leading veterinary practices and associated pet healthcare businesses.