We Are Bad Parents, I mean Owners

A rather worrying occurence. On Sunday afternoon, Shuggie wandered into the bedroom, under the bed, and found a box containing Christmas decorations. He got into it, found a pretend holly branch made of wire, with red plastic berries. He proceeded to eat part of the branch, berries, wire and all.

In the days that followed, he seemed a bit under the weather, vomiting bile every few hours, sometimes containing bits of red plastic – but no wire (we weren’t sure if he had eaten the wire at this stage). But in between, he was still eating, playing, and going to the toilet – but he was also sleeping a lot. In the end we thought it would be best to take him to the vet yesterday morning. A quick examination, and the vet said he should have an X-ray, and they kept him in. I was off work with a rotten cold anyway (despite the heat), so I just sat around, waiting for the call. The call came, and I was told the X-ray showed a 3cm ball of wire in his stomach, which wouldn’t be passed naturally, and which was in danger of perforating his innards. Surgery was required, and was quickly performed, with no complications, thank goodness. The wire came out, there was no infection (fingers crossed) and no perforations.

So yesterday evening, we visited him just as he was coming out of his anaesthetic. He looked pitiful – all droopy, with one of those big lampshade collars, green socks holding in a drip, and with his belly shaved, revealing a 5cm row of stitches. Mairi and I couldn’t stand seeing him like that.

He spent last night in the Animal Hospital in Streatham. He may be able to come home tonight, depending on his progress. I’ll keep you posted.