Charlie and the ribbon

Some of you will have seen this post on Facebook but it is a very interesting tale so we had to tell it again…

Meet our friend Charlie. He had been vomiting and off his food for several days and despite a visit to the emergency vets at the weekend, was still not doing any better. He came into our Te Kauwhata clinic where he was examined by our Vet Matthew and admitted to the hospital for some supportive care and additional diagnostics. An abdominal ultrasound and X-rays were taken giving us the answer to his condition. Can you guess what was wrong with Charlie?….

If you guessed that Charlie had a string-like foreign body then you were right!

You can see the bunching in his bowel on the x-rays as well as a gas pattern present showing signs of an obstruction. This is a very serious and life-threatening condition requiring emergency surgery. Not uncommon in our feline friends, it typically occurs when they ingest a bit of string or ribbon which can become anchored. This causes the intestines to bunch up on themselves as they try to pass the obstruction and can even cause perforations due to the sawing motion of the material!

Charlie was taken to surgery where over 1.5m of ribbon was removed from his intestines through several enterotomy sites. See the video below! Throughout his stay and even during the recovery from his big surgery, Charlie remained a very affectionate and cooperative patient, who quickly endeared himself to the entire TK team. We are happy to say he made a full recovery and is back to his normal cheeky self.