First Aid when your cat eats "sharp" items
Something that MAY work for SMALL objects
LARGE objects WILL get stuck and require surgery
WARNING this may not work AT ALL for cats !!!
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 01:59:18 -0700 Subject: FEL-L: First aid
Has anyone heard of this? Do you think it would work for cats? Dana
(2) First Aid For Dogs Who Eat Glass Xmas Tree Ornaments Or Other Sharp Objects
THE PROCEDURE What do you do if your puppy (or mischievous older dog) gets into your holiday decorations & eats some of the glass ornaments? This potentially lethal mishap can darken even the brightest holiday season.
BEFORE the holiday go to a pharmacy & buy a box of cotton balls. Be sure that you get COTTON balls ... not the "cosmetic puffs" that are made from man-made fibers. Also, buy a quart of half-and-half coffee cream & put it in the freezer.
Should your dog eat glass ornaments, defrost the half-and-half & pour some in a bowl. Dip cotton balls into the cream & feed them to your dog.
Dogs under 10 lbs should eat 2 balls which you have first torn into smaller pieces. Dogs 10-50 lbs should eat 3-5 balls & larger dogs should eat 5-7.You may feed larger dogs an entire cotton ball at once. Dogs seem to really like these strange "treats" & eat them readily. As the cotton works its way through the digestive tract it will find all the glass pieces & wrap itself around them. Even the teeniest shards of glass will be caught & wrapped in the cotton fibers & the cotton will protect the intestines from damage by the glass. Your dog's stools will be really weird for a few days & you will have to be careful to check for fresh blood or a tarry appearance to the stool. If either of the latter symptoms appear you should rush your dog to the vet for a checkup but, in most cases, the dogs will be just fine.
An actual experience:I can personally vouch for the cotton ball treatment. While I was at the vet waiting for him to return from lunch a terrified woman ran in with a litter of puppies who had demolished a wooden crate along with large open staples. The young vet had taken x-rays which did show each of the puppies had swallowed several open staples. He was preparing them for surgery when my wonderful vet came in & said no surgery. I watched him wet several cotton balls, squeeze out the water & pop them down their throats. Within 24 hours every staple was accounted for. This was a lesson I learned in the mid 1960s & have had to use several times on my brats. I wet the cotton balls & smear on some liverwurst & they bolt it down & ask for more. Cotton always comes out with the object safely embedded.
Copyright reserved to Sandy Brock. Permission is hereby granted for any non-profit reproduction by any person or group.
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 17:17:19 -0800 Subject: Re: FEL-L: First aid
This would probably work for dogs but with cats I think it would cause and intestinal blockage. It might collect up the sharp stuff though and make removal of the stuff easier by getting it all into one place verses having sharp pieces spread through out the intestines. I still think it would require surgery to remove the cotton balls with the inappropriate sharp pieces of stuff in them. I would be curious to here some insight from others.
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1998 11:56:32, -0500 Subject: Fwd: Re: FEL-L: First aid
>> work for dogs but with cats I think it would cause an intestinal blockage
I work at a vets office and spoke to my boss about this. He has heard of it before and said that it would probably work well. But he would still have the animal checked out. As far as it being better on dogs versus cats.....didn't get into that with him.
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1998 22:48:56 -0500 Subject: FEL-L: Re: first aid
I have not had a chance to ask the vet I work for about this, but I too would think cotton balls would cause an intestinal blockage. The vet I used to work for recommended feeding bread to animals who had ingested foreign objects. I have seen it work numerous times and since bread is completely digestable I never saw it cause a blockage.