Cat Swallows Shoelace

Background

Cats love to play with strings, ribbons, and shoelaces. It's when they turn these items into a snack that there's a problem. Things went bad for Maxx, a 1 year old Maine Coon, when he discovered a discarded shoelace in the trash.

Maxx's pet parent, Susan C., explains:

"I adopted Maxxi along with his littermate sister, Rose, from a MA shelter. He has always been the playful, fun-loving one. As I write this, he is knocking over a jar of catnip next to me and gazing up with hopeful eyes begging me to unlock the lid.

He will be two years old tomorrow and has lately been scavenging my garbage cans, especially the office where I deposit my paper shredder bits. He loves to knock it over and play around in the paper.

One morning, while I was having coffee, he began vomiting (and crying for me). I went to him and I noticed that it was all liquid. He vomited three more times and I assumed he was working on a hairball. But when I looked in the office, I noticed a huge amount of food, along with a 45" pink shoelace that I had placed in my night table drawer (he must have wedged it open while I was sleeping).

I immediately called the emergency vet and they insisted that I bring him in just in case he swallowed something else. X-rays revealed that he swallowed ANOTHER black shoelace that I had discarded (and buried deep in tissues) in the office garbage can.

His intestines were like an accordion with the shoelace half-way inside. They didn't know what kind of damage that they would find once they operated and I was horrified. Luckily, I caught it quickly and the surgeon was able to push the shoelace through to the colon without cutting into his intestine and stomach. And his intestine returned to normal immediately.

He is a sweet, darling boy and his recovery went along as hoped for. He was lucky and we're now closer than ever."