My cat vomited an object a few hours ago, what should I do now?

Question

My 4-month old kitten vomited 2 times today, approximately 8-9 hours ago. The first time, nothing except a clearish fluid came up, but the second time (about an hour later), an elongated (stretched out) plastic twist-tie about 5.5 inches (13.5 centimeters) came up with the fluid as well. The tie had teeth marks on it so I suspect that she had been playing with it and tried and succeeded in eating it.

After the second time she vomited, she had a brief period of about average energy, but she has slept for most of the time. This doesn't seem out of the norm because she is a pretty calm cat if nobody in the house is doing anything exciting.

Since then, I've seen her stalk a ladybug that got in the house and I just gave her a toy and some wet food and she seemed to regain some of her energy. She's eaten both her wet and dry food since then.

What should I do now? Obviously the safest thing to do is to bring her to the vet, but if this is something that can be treated or alleviated by a home remedy then I'd rather not pay the fees.

Answer 1

This happened to me a couple of times and I did take my cat to the vet the first time, here's what she said:

A string or a plastic twist-tie won't show up in an echography, so there's no point in doing one. Unless you've seen exactly what they've eaten, which is not the case here as most of the times, there is a risk that some of it is still inside, and it might twist and get tangled in their intestines on its way out. This may end up badly, having to perform surgery on the cat to remove it. To try to prevent it you should give them a cat safe laxative based on petroleum that will lubricate their digestive tract (http://cats.lovetoknow.com/cat-health-health-problems/safe-laxatives-cats, the first three are petroleum based) and wet food, you can add some pumpkin to the wet food to add more fiber to it. You also have to monitor her litter box, she should poop within less than 24 hours. Check the poop for left over pieces of the plastic or string eaten and the kitten for any sign of distress when using the litter box. If there's a pice of string dangling from your cat anus do not pull since that can seriously harm your kitten, just cut what's dangling, the rest will come out the next time. If she doesn't poop within one day or shows any sign of distress or lethargy please take her to the vet. Also make sure she drinks plenty of water.

The listed above are very cheap and easy precautions that you can take at home and will help solve the issue on its own most to the times, but please do keep a close eye on your kitten until you are sure she's fine, and if in doubt always call your vet.

Answer 2

Since you can't look inside, the savest bet would be asking a vet. There's probably nothing left (Do you have the suspicion that it ate a second twist tie?) and I don't think the cat has any other injuries due to that. If it doesn't try to vomit again, there's probably nothing to worry about. More rigid stuff is far more dangers (like needles).

Overall, what you describe is pretty much natural behavior. E.g. if cats got some hairballs in their stomach, they'll try to eat grass (which will stick to the hair and grab it) and then try to vomit all that at once.

Maybe it thought the twist-tie would be some kind of grass stalk. Does your cat have any opportunity to chew on grass (garden or some grass in a pot)? If not, get it some cat grass.