My cat just threw up a huge piece of rubber!

[profcat]

Our cat Harry loves eating rubber-- like actually eating it. A few years back we had a couple of those rubber cat balls (the ones that come in assorted toy packs) and he ate one and threw it up in pieces. I had to dig threw the garbage to make sure we had all the pieces and nothing was left inside of him-- fortunately, that was all of it. The pieces wound up on our vet's shelf of things dogs eat, even though Harry is a cat.

Well, he hasn't been eating since yesterday and threw up a few times over the weekend, which is totally unlike him. We planned to bring him in first thing Monday morning. We've removed ALL rubber toys from the house. We even threw out a couple of cat wands that had rubber blue handles because he had been chewing on them. We threw them out MONTHS ago over the summer. And he just threw up a 1 inch chunk of a blue wand handle!! It's possible it was a broken-off piece that rolled under something and he found it-- but it can't be possible it's been in his stomach for months, right? Right?!

We're still bringing him in tomorrow morning and probably they'll want to do an x-ray to account for more pieces. Does rubber even show on an x-ray? We're just stunned that we threw these wand toys out so long ago and somehow he managed to eat it anyway!

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I'm guessing it was a piece that rolled under the furniture and he just found it. As to whether rubber will show up on an xray, I think it will, but not sure. So glad he threw up that large piece rather than it creating a blockage!

 

[FeebysOwner]

I would be totally surprised if the rubber was from something he ingested months ago! You would think it would have created some sort of issue for him long before now. So, he likely found a piece that was overlooked somewhere.

I would guess if they can see various obstructions in an x-ray, they should see rubber or most any other foreign material, if it is big enough. It would be nice to get to the bottom of this, but I am hoping they don't find any foreign objects!!