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Pet of the Year Finalist: Cat with unusual appetite bites off more than she can chew

Dogs can eat all sorts – and this can often mean a trip to the vets, sometimes requiring a surgery if whatever has been eaten has then become stuck. What is more unusual is a greedy cat that will eat anything, edible or not. This is a description of Misty, the three year old moggy who doesn’t care what she has a nibble at! Unfortunately, she definitely bit off more than she could chew this time and ended up needing an emergency surgery.

As a young cat, Misty is usually quite bright, lively and energetic. So when she was vomiting non-stop and had become very quiet, her owners knew that something was wrong and that she may have eaten something problematic. Misty had vomited at least 10 times on the day of her appointment and was found to be a little dehydrated on her examination, with a painful belly. An obstruction was a definite concern with her history and appearance so she was admitted for hospitalisation and further investigations.

Once on an intravenous drip and given strong pain relief, an unusual firm sausage shaped area could be felt in what appeared to be Misty’s intestines – an X-ray seemed to confirm this. After speaking to Misty’s owners the decision was made to take her to surgery – an operation called an exploratory laparotomy under a general anaesthetic was the sensible next step required. This would effectively be an ‘unzipping’ of her belly to feel through her intestines in an attempt to find any blockage. No one was prepared to find such an unusual obstruction though…

Straight away during the surgery, an enlarged, distended piece of intestine was visible. The intestine then had to be very carefully cut into to remove the blockage in a procedure known as an enterotomy. This is always a tricky procedure, as the intestinal contents are in the most part smelly fluids that could easily cause contamination to the rest of the abdomen and the organs within, which need to remain clean and sterile. Preventing this contamination with delicately positioned large swabs, an incision was made into the intestinal wall and an unusual structure was pulled out with forceps. It was difficult to tell whether the material was part of a hair tie or shoe lace, but there was a lot of it, and all of it couldn’t be easily removed at first.

As more was pulled, intestine began to bunch up lower down, towards the stomach. Rather than keep pulling and create more damage, another incision was needed to find more material in the intestine. This allowed the rest of the material to be removed and placed to one side. At this point, both holes created in the intestine had to be stitched up. This suturing needed to be as secure as possible, so that no intestinal contents could leak out. The rest of the intestines were then checked and felt through in their entirety to rule out any remaining material, before finally the stomach was palpated so that nothing was left behind before finishing the operation.

However, to everyone’s dismay and surprise, Misty’s stomach was also completely full of the same substance! The stomach then had to be incised into in a procedure known as a gastrotomy, and far more material than can be imagined was then removed, as it was found to be filling the entire stomach. The stomach wall was then sutured closed in the same way as the intestines, meaning Misty had undergone a double enterotomy as well as a gastrotomy, enduring a long anaesthetic. One incision into the digestive tract is prone to enough complications, such as break down of the sutured wound leading to leakage of intestinal contents and a potentially fatal infection known as peritonitis, as well as adhesions – where parts of the intestine get stuck together, so three separate incisions were high risk for Misty.

Nonetheless, she recovered fantastically and began eating the next day, with no further vomiting. At this point Misty could be discharged back to her relieved owners with pain relief and antibiotics, and she became brighter with each passing day. The material removed from her digestive tract was found to be bungee straps from a rucksack that she had been playing with, that she had somehow inexplicably tried to eat! It was further relief when she used her litter tray for the first time, as it meant that her intestines were in full working order. Once a week had elapsed from her surgery, the risk of breakdown of her intestinal structures had more or less passed. By the time she returned to have her skin sutures removed, she was completely back to normal, but her playtime was to be monitored so that she wouldn’t eat anything else quite so unusual and dangerous!