My cat ate yarn! What do I do if my cat swallowed string or thread?

Hi and thanks for posting on Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Ingested string is a very serious concern as it has the potential to cause an obstruction in the gastrointestinal tract which may require surgery. You will need to visit your nearest emergency veterinarian to induce vomiting as soon as possible. After 2 hours, inducing vomiting will have little to no effect as the string will have likely passed through her stomach. Best of luck to you and Oreo!

Just monitor her for the moment; unfortunately strings and any type of linear foreign body can sit in the intestine and stomach for ages before coming out!. As long as she eating fine and drinking ok and passing feces and urine normally and being normal in terms of demeanor and activity level she will be ok and she won't need any check up. You could potentially give her some mineral oil (2mls every meal )like paraffin oil to lubricate the gastrointestinal canal and help to get rid of the strings if there. Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation (where you can post pictures ) if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

If he ate the shoe-lace within the past 90 minutes, take your cat to a PetER where they can make him vomit and hopefully bring up the lace. If it has been longer, then you need to monitor him for diarrhea and vomiting and if this occurs, take him to a PetER for an exam as he then may have an obstruction of his intestine. Should the lace pass naturally and you see it sticking out from his anus, do NOT pull on it. It needs to be pushed out naturally. Pulling on it may damage your cat's intestine.

You can ask as many questions you like! I would take her into a vet to be safe, as these strings can often get caught in a cat's mouth around the tongue. The other problem with strings is that they can cause a linear foreign body. If you can get her into a vet now to induce vomiting, then you can prevent an obstruction from happening. The vet can also check her mouth to see if it's stuck in there.

This is completely up to you. A vet visit is never a bad idea when something seems off. Hair ingestion can cause an intestinal obstruction so I would be a bit worried about that. If you want to give him another 12-18 hours or so to see how he is I think that is reasonable to do. If no improvement after that time he should see a vet. If he starts vomiting at all then he needs to see a vet right away. Hope this helps. Best wishes.

This could go either way unfortunately, as it happened only 20 minutes ago i would recommend taking her to the vet right now in order to get an injection to induce vomiting, it will be less risky to have it come out that way.

I would have Charlie seen by a vet right away for this. A piece of shirt this long can easily cause a linear foreign body, and if it does create an obstruction, he would need surgery to remove it. It's best to avoid that completely, and the vet can determine if it's safe to give him a shot to induce vomiting to get it out of his stomach. Good luck!