On Feb 2 a beautiful Himalayan-mix blue point male neutered cat, 3 years of according to owner, was brought in on emergency. Merlot was vomiting profusely, not eating and seemed painful on abdominal palpation. Xrays pointed towards a possible linear foreign body where string gets caught up in the stomach/intestines and stretches out, acting like a saw and damaging the intestines. Merlot was hospitalized and started on medical treatment but unfortunately he did not respond. Merlot had emergency surgery that day which confirmed what xrays had shown. He had ingested a string which wrapped around the base of his tongue, ran through his stomach, into his intestines before ending at the distal end of his small intestines. Merlot ended up needing a gastrotomy (incision into stomach) and 2 enterotomy sites (incision into intestines). Merlot developed a high fever secondary to post surgical pancreatitis. He is healing nicely and is ready to go home, hopefully to a string-free environment.
Species: Feline / Himalayan-Mix
Gender: Male / Neutered
Estimated Birthday: 2013
Animal’s Location: Northwood Animal Hospital
Minimum Adoption Donation: $75