Cat ate chicken bone - how worried?

[njjeninky]

Last night my 16 year old cat swiped a piece of chicken right off my plate. Before I could get to her, she had swallowed whole the little knob of bone you get on a chicken thigh. I kept a watch on her all night - no coughing, no vomiting. She ate dinner and breakfast and seems fine.

Out of an abundance of caution I called the vet to see what I should be looking for. She said that I need to go home and check the litter box to see if she has already passed it. She also suggested locking her up in a room with a litter box so I would know if she was defecating (I have two other cats and kind of hard to figure out what belongs to which cat!).

But this would stress her out so much - she's old and deaf and does not like change. They said I could also bring her in for an x-ray ($$$) if I don't see that she passed it by tomorrow and didn't know if she had defecated or not.

Does anyone have any experience with this? How worried should I be? Now I feel horrible for leaving her all day.

[kellbell191]

I would definitely keep watching her, chicken bones cause blockages pretty easily and at her age a removal surgery would not be great.

The x ray is like $100 I think if you guys decide to go that route.

[iamgrace]

All you can do is watch. If she starts vomiting, or if she isn't pooping, get worried. If she's not vomiting, is still eating, drinking, pooping, she's fine.

My cat ate a wishbone a few years ago and handled it no problem. I flipped the eff out though. My vet gave me the advice I just gave you. I hope she's ok.

[njjeninky]

Jun 21, 2012 14:15:48 GMT -5 iamgrace said:

If she starts vomiting, or if she isn't pooping, get worried.

So you would recommend that I keep her in a room with a litter box, even though it would stress her out to be segregated?

[iamgrace]

How stressed? Could you segregate your other animals instead?

[njjeninky]

Well, the other 2 cats would just be royally pissed off if I locked them up in a room with a litter box. Right now I have 3 boxes in the basement that they all use.

The older cat would be seriously stressed if I left her alone in a room.

Maybe I'll go home and see that she passed it already and this will all be moot.

[iamgrace]

You gotta do what you gotta do. Sorry. It sucks.

[kellbell191]

Normally when we have to segregate someone, we put a litterbox in our bathroom and the cat who needs to be separated gets to sleep with us. Makes them less pissed off and accomplishes the overall purpose.

[eightangryreindeer]

"knob" is making me wonder if she swallowed the cartilage at the end of the bone instead of an actual bone. Which would be better, a small round knob is going to cause a lot less digestive stress than a long, straight bone.

[njjeninky]

Yes - it's the round knob, like the size of a small marble. Not a long chicken bone. She swallowed it whole. I will figure out a way to segregate the cats tonight if she hasn't passed it yet. Thanks for the advice!

[eightangryreindeer]

Jun 21, 2012 14:33:08 GMT -5 njjeninky said:

Yes - it's the round knob, like the size of a small marble. Not a long chicken bone. She swallowed it whole. I will figure out a way to segregate the cats tonight if she hasn't passed it yet. Thanks for the advice!

Then my guess is that it's not bone, it's cartilage, which won't splinter and is more digestible. So I'd take the advice of separating and monitoring for another 24 hours but I think you can ramp down on the anxiety a little bit.

[njjentoky]

Update - I came home from work early because I was getting too anxious, and it seemed stupid to sit there worrying for 45 more minutes. She is fine, does not appear to be in distress, and is eating dinner right now. Unfortunately, she has not yet passed it, as far as I can tell. I personally squeezed every little cat turd to try to find it - fun times, let me tell you. Vet told me to put petroleum jelly on the roof of her mouth to move things along, so I'm going to do that. And I need to figure out the logistics of separating the cats, but that is the next step. Thanks for the help!