07/24/2026
This is Lola! Lola got herself in trouble a few weeks ago when she found herself a dangerous toy inside a cabinet - sewing thread. Her family didn't see her sneak the thread from the sewing supplies, but they realized something was wrong once she started vomiting. They brought her in and we were able to see part of the thread under her tongue. When she swallowed it, it wrapped itself under her tongue and extended all the way down through her small intestines. We took x-rays to look at her intestines, and very quickly went to surgery to save her life!
The thread measured at 25 inches and went all the way from her mouth through the entire small intestine. It required a few enterotomies (surgical openings of the small intestine) to cut it into smaller pieces and remove it. It was a tough surgery but she was a trooper and did great.
This is a very common foreign material for cats to ingest The barbs on their tongue make it impossible for cats to just spit out a thread and they instead have to swallow it. The string causes the intestines to plicate- meaning they bunch up around the string. You can see this on her x-ray, all of that bunched up intestine is not normal, and becomes very painful. This creates a life threatening situation very quickly! Dr. Lepkowski performed her surgery and she went home a few days later. We are so grateful that she recovered well ♡
Lola and the staff at Animal House encourage everybody to make sure to keep any kind of strings safely away from their kitties 😸
