What is it about hair bands?
Our youngest cat Miranda loves to eat ribbon. It drives me nuts. Are wrapped presents in the house? Hide them before Miranda knows. Does our daughter's stuffed lamb have a bow? Cut it off. We know Miranda loves to eat ribbon, yet somehow we find vomit with ribbon in the carpet every 4 months (and we only have 1 carpeted room!). I'm also sure some of her poop has had it too, because we've pulled some from her rectum before.
After a long day at work, I really don't want to look at a sick cat. And I certainly don't want to drag one up to the clinic for a surgery in the middle of the night. Luckily, this has yet to happen, but some of our clients have not been so lucky.
When a cat eats something that we have to surgically remove, we'll refer to that as a "foreign body surgery". If your cat has eaten a piece of foam, that foam is now considered a foreign body - an object that is does not belong in the cat.
Foreign body cases usually present as a young cat who cannot stop vomiting and now refuses to eat. Sometimes we can touch the belly and know that it's there. If the object if very small, we may not feel it but we might feel air accumulating behind it. If the object is very dense, it may be detected by shooting x-rays at the belly to develop an image known as a radiograph. Some foreign body cases are very tricky and evade detection on exam and radiographs. In those instances, a vet may order a barium study or perhaps an ultrasound that will find the item.
When I get the sense that I might be dealing with a foreign body, I usually ask if the cat likes to play with hair bands. It would seem that 1/3 of the time, I will remove hair bands during these surgeries. Recently I achieved a personal best in most hair bands removed in one surgery. The first image shows a bulging stomach that I've exposed through an incision on the belly. The stomach was very hard, and perhaps the size of a robust grapefruit. In this picture, I have cut into the stomach and have started to pull out some black hair bands.
This is a emesis tray with the hair bands.
How many bands are in that tray? I started to count, flung some stomach fluid in my face, and decided the picture was good enough.
posted by CatVetDeux @ 2:20 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
this is revolting......but is also one of the reasons I cut my hair and have banned all bands from my home. my cat is adorable when he plays fetch with them, but inevitably, I know he ends up trying to eat them....
Hey Dr! Just came across your blog, very excited to start reading as I am a cat person myself. Currently in school to be a vet tech and hoping to work at a feline-only practice one day.
I love the photos you post. This one struck a particular chord with me as one of my kitties has the same affinity for ribbon/hair bands/floss as so many kitties do... now I am worried this is inside her belly. :) Fortunately I know well enough to keep these things tucked safely away from her reach... but she is a master at getting what she wants, as so many cats are. Ha.
Thanks for the great posts!
Great warning to cat owners who almost need to monkey-proof everything. We have to physically tie the bathroom door so we can leave it open a crack with a fan on to help it dry after a shower in order to keep any cats out.
I have used these hair things pretty much my whole life and believe these are commonly called hair elastics. Hair bands are larger and either rigid and shaped like a horse shoe, or are a larger version of a hair elastic that goes under the hair at the back of the neck to behind the ears and over the top of the head. It makes a difference for Internet searches to associate with the photo to hind this post. Great info.
My cat Angelo loves to hunt hair bands in my room! He prefers them to most foods.. I don't know how to stop him from craving it... what is wrong with him? :(
Just brought my cat home today. She had surgery wednesday where they removed 15 elastic Bands and a piece of metal wire from her stomach. I feel like a horrible mom. She had stopped eating and was retching so I brought her in.
I have an orange Maine Coon tabby that is obsessed with playing with hair bands "ponytails". I plays fetch with them and then puts them in his water bowl when he's done. I've never seen him try to eat the things but we go through a large amount of them and can't seem to ever find them again. Should we be concerned?
My 2 year old tabby just had an entire ziplock bag of hair ties removed from his stomach. Had no symptoms, was still eating and drinking and pooping. Took him in for routing rabies shot and they felt his enlarged stomach. Have removed all hair bands from the house as our Maine Coon loves to play with them and then our tabby must be eating them.
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