Mittens - Our Christmas star!

 

When 9 month old Mittens started being sick his worried owners brought him in to see vet Rachel. He was admitted to the hospital for further investigation. Whilst in, Mittens was sick again and student nurse Jazmin spotted a shiny item that he'd brought up - about a 3cm long piece of gold braid.

Suspecting that Mittens might well have eaten more, the decision was made to operate on him. Vet Katie carried out the surgery and discovered that indeed Mittens had eaten more.....in fact nearly 6metres!

This particularly dangerous foreign body had made it's way along his small intestines where it began to bunch up causing a blockage. Katie had to make several incisions into the small intestines in order to remove it all.

The braid removed from
 Mittens!

With a bit of detective work from his owner Amanda, we found out what happened. She was preparing to decorate the house and had placed a reel of gold braid under the Christmas tree to be used at a later date. When she came to use it, it couldn't be found and Amanda thought she'd simply misplaced it. Unbeknown to her, Amanda's husband had found an empty reel under the sofa and thrown it away, thinking nothing of it.

 

Mittens must have been playing with the reel & managed to get the end of the braid in his mouth. A cat's tongue is rough & covered in tiny barbs called papillae which help direct food to the back of the mouth. Material like cotton, string & braid can become caught on the papillae and the cat can't spit it out, and instead begins to swallow it

 

Mittens has recovered well and is now back home for Christmas.

 

Thank-you to his owners for allowing us to share his story in order to raise awareness.