Please read our scary story that thankfully ends well...with a cautionary reminder:
Last Thursday one our two were sick early in the morning (puddle on kitchen floor not yet dried-up at 6AM). There was nothing much in it, mainly bile with some fur. I didn't think too much of it as my two have a habit of stealthily swiping plastic straws (skillfully from my children's drinks without knocking over the glasses!) and eating them, sometimes returning the straw to us in chewed-up pieces vomited back up - daft kittens! We obviously try and hide straws or similar.
It was a different type of plastic this time though...late afternoon Thursday Augustus was seen being sick, bile with small white plastic bits. In cleaning-up I checked-out the plastic bits and immediately recognized them as chewed bits of a pills blister pack. Now I'm getting concerned and with closer inspection could see that it had traces of the foil remaining and text printed on it, potentially he had found some Ibuprofen. Whilst hunting around for what may be left of the pack my wife was googling the implications of this: potentially FATAL! Kidney failure I believe. Eventually I discovered the remains of the blister pack inside a tunnel (4' long heavy duty cardboard tube/square box I kept for them to run through / hide in when playing. Brilliant home-made toy that I covered the outside with white paper to make more aesthetically acceptable, they love using it - but that's for a different thread) Most of it had been chewed away, but it was definitely Ibuprofen or Advil as known in the US. My heart sank as the wife's research confirmed how serious this was, coupled to the fact there was half a tablet missing from the pack, and who knows how many tablets were in the card when he pinched it?
So it was now an emergency trip (we have insurance) to our vet's, which fortunately is a veterinary hospital staffed 24 hours a day only ten minutes drive away. The surgeon on duty that night didn't even seek to examine Gus when we first met in the examination room, rather questioned me in great detail about how much, when, how long ago, type of vomit, cat's behaviour etc. since this is the key information he needs to chose next course of action. His initial response to me was that this is a most grave situation for our boy, and depending on how much he had consumed he may not be alive in 48 hours. He decided to try every option to treat him although kept reminding me that if he's had as little as one and a half tablets absorbed that would be it.
So they had him in overnight: injection to induce vomiting, took blood samples for testing, IV drip, injected him with something too I think. He wasn't sick - cats are harder to make sick than dogs apparently. They couldn't get any activated charcoal into him either - apparently there was a black coating on the cat's face, vets hands, assistants hands and all over their treatment table - I'd have have loved to have witnessed that struggle! They kept Gus all of Friday too to have blood tests for comparison.
Outcome on Saturday morning was very positive - sufficient for him to come home - Great, Yay, Whoopee, tears averted (I didn't truly reveal to my girls just how much his life was in danger - optimism rules in my world) He was sent home with an oil like medication to prevent further absorption that I was to give orally with a small syringe at meal times - yeah right, like he's going to let me do that!!! He would't touch food with that mixed in either so I gave-up on ongoing treatment. Anyway, the result from a final blood test Tuesday afternoon came back that he's all OK.
We can only assume he found the pills packet from my wife's bag, or off the admittedly messy home office desk maybe. He's a cunning bengal our Augustus and he'll scour the house for things to chew (pencil erasers are another favourite) We are now super careful about where pills are stored in our house and I'm worried one day we'll take two pills from a blister pack when feeling blue with a cold for example and accidentally leave on the kitchen counter. Please, please, please ensure your babies can't see any plastic blister packs of pills, especially if your cat has a penchant for chewing stuff. Only a small amount of Ibuprofen will kill. This time he was lucky and must have been sick quickly enough before absorbing too much of the drug.
[PS - to top it all we then had his brother Max treating him as an alien invader for two days as he presumably didn't recognize his smell = hissing, early signs of attacking etc. Separation when we're not there to intervene before fighting and having Feliway Friends for two days and harmony has returned)
Sorry about extra-long post. Rob
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