Otto is a handsome two year old orange and white domestic short hair. The staff at Rock Bridge Animal Hospital first saw Otto in December of 2012 for crystals in his urine, but Otto’s big case didn’t happen until May of 2013.
Otto is definitely a very curious and adventurous cat, so when he came in on May 14th and wasn’t acting like himself, it was obvious that something was wrong. Otto presented with vomiting, which had been going on for a couple of days.
After speaking with his owner, we found out that Otto loved to eat, even if it was something he wasn’t supposed to be eating. Over the time he was sick, he had vomited up normal food, but also things such as a streamer from a Mizzou pom-pom and pieces from a periwinkle plant.
We decided to take some X-rays to see if there was anything obvious in his stomach that could have been causing the vomiting. In the X-ray, we could see that a portion of Otto’s intestines was scrunched up, when it should have been more straightened out like a tube. After seeing this, we decided that Otto needed surgery to see if he could have eaten something that may have gotten stuck.
During the surgery, we discovered that it wasn’t the pom-pom or a piece of a plant that was causing Otto all of the discomfort; it was a string from a mini blind! The doctors removed the string and Otto was back to himself after a couple days of recovering.
Otto is lucky that he has such great owners who recognized something was wrong and brought him in immediately. When left untreated, foreign bodies can cause a lot of harm. Otto is such a sweet and loving boy and we always enjoy seeing him here at Rock Bridge Animal Hospital!
