How can I be so lucky that I will be both going to NYC and have a seminar with one of my favorite co-speakers at the same time? On Friday November 9, Dr. Susan Little and myself with talk tinsel and what to do when it gets stuck in the cat.
I love abdominal surgery and I love cats, so what better for a surgeon to have this combo in the OR? The bad news is that cats do often not show the severe clinical signs we see in dogs with GI obstructive disease and they like to eat string foreign bodies.
String or linear foreign bodies mean bad news. They get stuck and the bowels start crawling up the string causing major havoc and damage to the intestinal wall with possible perforations as a result. Add the nondescript clinical feline signs to this concoction as you have a possible life threatening disease issue.
Immediate surgery is often the key to success especially after endoscopic removal has proven to be impossible. But do not do surgery before you check one major location of the string and that is under the tongue!
Cats with string foreign bodies have a worse prognosis that other things that they like but should not eat! As in all cases, early detection and quick surgery after solid stabilization have the best prognosis for the feline patient!
Oh well, this is in a nutshell what we will be talking about! And the best news is that we are podcasting live. So everyone will be able to enjoy this later on our awesome #purrpodcast!
Global Veterinary Surgery 