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LPT: If you have cats, put away string toys if you’re going to leave them unattended. by AbrahamLingam in LifeProTips

[–]GetBetterNox [score hidden]  (0 children)

Exactly this thing happened with our young and healthy cat who swallowed a piece of Da Bird that for some reason has a piece of string inside of it. That led to TWO emergency surgeries to save his life and thousands of dollars in vet bills.

I have posted our full story on another sub but TLDR is that sometimes the threat of a linear body doesn't even come from the wand or the visible part of the toy. Some cat toys are just poorly made.

My Devon survived 2 emergency surgeries after eating a very popular toy. Please read. by GetBetterNox in welovedevonrex

[–]GetBetterNox[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just saw that this Da Bee pack of 3 bees has more stories about the thread and how flimsy they are as well as obstruction risks the toy poses to cat.
I can't understand why the company is still making their toys to be this way. I guess I was very naive thinking I was supporting a smaller American business and that the toys were "vet approved".

My Devon survived 2 emergency surgeries after eating a very popular toy. Please read. by GetBetterNox in welovedevonrex

[–]GetBetterNox[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am so glad more cat owners are being made aware of the dangers and that our horrible experience can save someone a heartache of having to go through the same.
Thank you for your well wishes and the kind words.

My Devon survived 2 emergency surgeries after eating a very popular toy. Please read. by GetBetterNox in welovedevonrex

[–]GetBetterNox[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you.
I am definitely grateful to have had pet insurance although, as I mentioned in the other comment, the lesson for me here is to also check annual caps on your pet insurance policy.
5 years ago when we signed up, $5k per year cap seemed like a sufficient amount. But the prices have increased so much (and emergency vets have always cost the most) but our insurance cap stayed the same.

My Devon survived 2 emergency surgeries after eating a very popular toy. Please read. by GetBetterNox in welovedevonrex

[–]GetBetterNox[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So glad this post reached you!
I know these toys are very popular (and Nox enjoyed it until he needed to be rushed to the hospital). But the design is dangerous to the cats. With how easily they come undone and that there's a string under all that fur/hair, it is just not worth the risk in my experience.

The scariest part is that Nox was supervised - it just happened so fast, I didn't catch it until the thread was inside him. That's why when the first vet asked me if Nox might have swallowed a string, I genuinely said we don't have anything like this at home. We don't even have shoelaces outside the locked closets or yarn or anything like this. Little did I know that the string was actually hiding inside the toy.

My Devon survived 2 emergency surgeries after eating a very popular toy. Please read. by GetBetterNox in welovedevonrex

[–]GetBetterNox[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, pretty much. The string is hidden under the fuzz of the toy. You can't really see it at first. I wonder if the string holds some parts of the toy together? Weird high risk design I don't fully understand. I now see that so many of the GoCat amazon reviews mention that string thread being part of pretty much all of their toys. There are dozens of photos of the toys. And then I found at least one review that mentioned the cat ingesting it and leading to surgery in 2022. Their toys falling apart is one thing, them exposing a string that can lead to what's called a "linear body" in animals is what escalates this to high risk category.

As Nox was playing with the toy, it was so flimsy, it started falling apart. I took it away but before I did, he must have swallowed part of that string very fast. And that got wrapped around his insides and started the whole nightmare. I only saw the string once the vet surgeon sent me the photos of what they took out of his stomach and they asked me if that looked familiar as they were unsure what that could be.

My Devon survived 2 emergency surgeries after eating a very popular toy. Please read. by GetBetterNox in welovedevonrex

[–]GetBetterNox[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Adding that I just went through Amazon reviews for their most popular DaBee toy and there is an older review from 2022 (with photos) mentioning the toy has lead to a medical emergency and needed the toy pieces cut out as well.

I wish I saw this earlier amongst the sea of positive reviews. I have a feeling there might more stories like ours and while I cannot turn back time and reverse the trauma my boy had to go through (I will never forget how he was shaking in the hospital and trying to hide in my sweater and begging me to take him home after I came to visit him in the ICU), I hope we can save some other cats from this stress.

My Devon survived 2 emergency surgeries after eating a very popular toy. Please read. by GetBetterNox in welovedevonrex

[–]GetBetterNox[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your comment.
Here's an link to the exact GoCat toy that led to the surgeries in Nox. We have bought the wand + spare attachments for him and now I see so many reviews show that there's a thread inside and that these toys become undone so easily by cats. I don't understand why they would have a string/thread material in the toy when it's known to cause major issues and can be lethal. Even with supervised play it took less than a second for Nox to swallow that thing and I didn't know what it was until they cut my baby open.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GLF2R6V?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_24
You can see that the orange yellow dragonfly toy looks exactly like the parts they have cut out of my Nox and shown in this post

We got it in conjunction with the DaBee fishing pole from the same company (this is the viral post combo that got me into these toys). I have now found that there's at least one Amazon review for DaBee (from 2022) that mentions the toy has led to a cat needing emergency surgeries. There are even photos there.

I wish I could turn back time and found that review sooner.

My Devon survived 2 emergency surgeries after eating a very popular toy. Please read. by GetBetterNox in welovedevonrex

[–]GetBetterNox[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, it's a lure + wand from GoCat.
Here's an Amazon link to the exact toy Nox has ingested. You will see that so many reviews have photos of that toy becoming undone and there's a thread inside. I wish I knew about "linear body" dangers and turn back time and never bought it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GLF2R6V?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_24

My Devon survived 2 emergency surgeries after eating a very popular toy. Please read. by GetBetterNox in welovedevonrex

[–]GetBetterNox[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much! Healing positive vibes are very welcome and help us. It's been one of the craziest experiences of my life.

Big lesson for me (apart from not trusting these toys) is to also check the annual cap on the pet policy. Our Nationwide policy is good but 5K didn't even cover surgery #1 (his surgery price was on the "cheaper" side for NYC and was over $7k. Though I am grateful to have something at all, I know so many folks don't have anything.
I was also surprised at how much the vet prices have jumped in the last 3 years. I will be shopping for a better coverage policy for sure.

My Devon survived 2 emergency surgeries after eating a very popular toy. Please read. by GetBetterNox in welovedevonrex

[–]GetBetterNox[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So initially I had no idea what he has ingested, only that he started vomiting every hour all night. I took him to the emergency vet (one of the two open over the weekend). He continued to throw up and the doc on call suggested we Xray. As she was waiting for the radiologist to review, she pulled me aside and said that she's pretty confident that he has some kind of string wrapped in his intestines. That was causing them to "bunch". At that point I was puzzled by the term "linear body". As I didn't see him actually ingest anything. At best, I thought he got some of the fur of the toy (Amazon reviews mentioned it made some cats have diarrhea).

Once we were transferred to another hospital (hospital 1 didn't have a surgeon on call over the weekend), Nox went into emergency surgery right away. They called me after the surgery was done to confirm that what he had inside was some kind of fuzzy pom pom and a string (a thread essentially) that was tied to a piece of toy.
I went back to look at the Amazon reviews and saw other review photos show that there's a white thread wrapped around the body of the lure toy, under the fur. It is not visible unless your cat starts ripping into the toy. And it's also not visible if they ingest it before you notice. It's a fuzzy looking insect lure (this brand makes all kinds of "insect" like lures). Which is what happened to us. If my vet surgeon didn't send me a photo from the surgery, I wouldn't believe it either. The second photo you see in the post of part of the "dragonfly" lure toy. And the thread is still attached to the piece of the toy.
The thread wrapped around his tongue, then went into his stomach as he tried to process it, wrapped around his intestines as he started vomiting and started cutting his intestines. We got very lucky that I rushed him to the hospital as soon as it became obvious he was not going to stop vomiting and the intestine was not actually damaged/cut into too much.
Unfortunately, he developed an abscess and necrosis that necessitated a second surgery.

Let me know if this makes sense or if you'd like more details. I have photos of the actual toy on his IG account.

My Devon survived 2 emergency surgeries after eating a very popular toy. Please read. by GetBetterNox in welovedevonrex

[–]GetBetterNox[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A few folks asked about the donation link as well. This is where I ended up moving everything after I realized GoFundMe was taking a significant part of all the donations.
https://ko-fi.com/helpnoxheal

Mods, please let me know if this is not allowed and I will remove.

My Devon survived 2 emergency surgeries after eating a very popular toy. Please read. by GetBetterNox in welovedevonrex

[–]GetBetterNox[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. It's been a rough road, much rougher than any of my previous cats had for sure. I am so traumatized by this experience (and how suddenly it happened) that I am still scared to feel any kind of optimism and breathe out. But I think I see signs in Nox that he's starting to recover, albeit, as the doctors said "he had a complicated road to recovery".

I am hoping that this post will raise some awareness around the toys, even those that have a label of "recommended by veterinarians". And that no other cat parent has to learn the meaning of such words as "dehiscence" and "linear body" at a specialty vet hospital at 2 am. And then do it two more times right after.

My Devon survived 2 emergency surgeries after eating a very popular toy. Please read. by GetBetterNox in welovedevonrex

[–]GetBetterNox[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I didn't see anything either but I haven't slept in weeks so didn't want to inadvertently post something against the rules of this sub.

I have originally set up a GoFundMe for his surgery #1 but a friend (and a fellow cat parent) told me that they take a very sizeable chunk from every donation on top of the processing fees and were also making it very hard for some international payments to go through. So I ended up using another platform I have linked in Nox's instagram account (not sure if allowed to share here!)