On Thursday night at 10:30pm The Luscious Frankie J swallowed a sewing needle....
A torn up pair of jeans...
Holes around belt loops and pocket corners.
I finished patching, and left the needle on the coffee table - still threaded.
Frankie J loves thread, string, hair - anything long and thin and apparently...edible. I went to the computer and thought, "I need to put that thread away before Frankie eats it." ...turned around and it was gone. Needle and all.
About two and a half hours later, after a visit to Berkeley Dog and Cat, I walked through my door, exhausted, with Frankie in tow. I had a disk with an x-ray showing the needle in her stomach, and a head full of all of the possibilities of what could happen next. The vet thought maybe I should leave her at the hospital on an IV overnight... that we should x-ray again tomorrow to see where it was, and then decide if we should do an endoscopy to get it out (if it was still in her stomach) or cut her open. He said the needle could poke things, pass through things, or get stuck and cause problems - maybe death. He said it would be very expensive (thousands of dollars), so it would be better to wait until morning when (it would still be thousands of dollars, but) we would no longer be under emergency rates... but at that point the needle might no longer be in the stomach so our options would change. Mixed into all of this, he said he had just seen a kitten who swallowed a needle and, a few days later, pooed that sucker right out with no problem... He didn't think the kitten would be able to pass it because the kitten was so small, but it did.
His advice was dizzying and felt endless, money based, and non-conclusive. When I asked him what I should do, he ran through the possibilities again... and, when I asked what he would do, I was bombarded with all of the things I could do or that could happen AGAIN.
Finally, I asked what would happen if I took Frankie home to see if she would pass it - would it cause a lot of damage if I brought her back a couple days later if it hadn't come out? He said, he couldn't be sure - but he didn't think it'd cause too much damage....
I went home and found this on the internet: http://www.petlovers.com/vb//showthread.php?t=29981
I fed Frankie extra food, cried a little out of frustration, exhaustion, and uncertainty, and went to bed. I was kind of a mess...but Frankie seemed fine.
When I woke up the next day, Frankie still seemed fine. I fed her again and went to work. I checked on her at lunch... she was fine. After work, fine. I fed her extra again.
On Friday, I went to work and didn't make it home at lunch.
When I got home that night, Frankie seemed strange... she didn't greet me at the door, and seemed really sluggish. I tried to play with her with a shoestring, but she just laid there letting it hit her in the face. It'd almost been two days and the needle hadn't shown up in her poo.
I didn't want to go back to Dog and Cat, so I called The Broadway Pet Hospital to see if I could talk to someone. They were closed, so I left a message on their after hours hotline.
After checking some veterinary clinic reviews, I decided to call the Pets Referral Center as well. The woman I spoke with there listened to the situation and said that I had done the right thing by feeding Frankie extra, and that maybe Frankie was sluggish because I fed her too much... but if she was acting strange or in pain, maybe I should bring her in. Frankie didn't seem like she was in pain, and had definitely acted similar in the past when she'd gotten into extra food so... I decided to wait another day.
Later, I got a call back from the Broadway Pet Hospital. The doctor left a message saying that Frankie could pass the needle, that she might be acting weird because she was about to pass it, and that I could probably wait...unless she was vomiting or acting really depressed.
On Saturday, Frankie was back to her normal self. A little fatter, but energetic, and fine. I finally found the needle and thread early Sunday morning. *whew*
10 comments:
Wow. I would have lost my mind. This is the sort of thing I worry about ALL the time since I have so much sewing stuff scattered about. I try never to leave even little bits of thread lying around much less with a needle attached but it could happen. Damn cats are so fast! Im really glad that Mz. Frankie is okay. Hugs to you!
oh, the Luscious Frankie J... She was completely fine. I think that cats have more capacity to pass things like this than we'd think. The original crazy vet mentioned how cats have a tendency to eat bones, which are likely bigger and just as sharp as a sewing needle, and they pass them just fine.
I'm sooo glad that Frankie J is okay, and that we were able to deal with this in the most natural way possible.
Hooray! Also happy that everything turned out all right without cutting anyone open. Now that your anxiety has been quelled, you can unclench your bum, which will help in case you have swallowed any sewing needles.
We think that our cat ate the needle this evening. We did not find the needle anywhere. So we took him to doctor. He said, 60 bux for x-ray, 45 for something that helps it during x-ray, 82 for visiting him. bla bla bla
We decided to wait till morning. Do you think we can do it? Or maybe till next morning? What to do?
I think you can wait unless the cat seems like something's wrong. It actually took 3 days for Frankie to pass the needle. You have to keep checking through the litter box and poo...
I hope your cat is okay!! If it seems like he's acting strange, it might be worth it to pay the money to have him checked.
my cat just did the same thing. I found your post in a search. gah! what is with these cats!?
It appears that this happens all the time because this post gets soooo much traffic. I hope it helps! And, yes, why do cats love to eat needles... :P I hope it turns out well for you!
My cat ella fittzy just ate my sewing needle while I went to use the bathroom..read your post after freaking out for an hour..I rescue feral cats and am on a tight budget so going to the vet is something that I can't afford since I try my best to do all homiopathic things for the cats..I am so over whelmed..help me
I know it's really scary... :( And you're definitely not alone. Hang in there! Wishing you and your cat the best...
As for what I experienced, I never knew that my cat, Victim, swallowed a needle until one morning he passes it. I was kind of puzzled with what might be sticking out of his butt, because I normally would wipe his butt after he poo, I pulled it out and to my surprise, I saw a thread approximately 4 inches with a sewing needle attached to it. I never knew before that cats are likely to swallow needles because I think that it might likely poke them in the mouth so they'll just leave it alone until this thing happened to my pet early this morning. I am not quite sure when he actually swallowed it, there was no sign of him acting weird, actually he is just so playful like he normally would be. I hope he gets lucky and he dodged any life-threatening things that could happen. They say cats have 9 lives, my Victim I guess has just used one credit. He's fine now but will observe, hopefully he'll live a very long life. :-)
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