A cat's life has been saved after a vet discovered a collection of hair bobbles in his stomach. Two-year-old Nero had been secretly stealing the ties from his owner's bedside table - and swallowing them.
The black and white moggy - owned by Amy Richards, 29, and her partner Jamie Lamb, 28 - had eaten 11 of the bobbles in total.
The couple, from Newcastle, had no idea what Nero had been up to. Amy did not know where the bands were mysteriously disappearing to until her cat was sick and brought up two of the bobbles, ChronicleLive reports.
The concerned owners tookl him to Westway Vets’ 24-hour hospital, where vets performed an ultrasound scan. The scan revealed more hair ties, which had gathered in a clump in his stomach.
The bands were urgently removed. Vet Lucy Carr, clinical director Caroline Scobie and veterinary nurse Tilly Gladstone pulled out the remaining hair ties using a specific procedure where a tiny camera passed down into the stomach.
While the pet was under anaesthetic, the endoscope was manoeuvred, with a grabber device used to get hold of the bobbles.
A further nine bands were pulled out during the operation, which lasted one-and-a-half hours. Lucy said: "We couldn’t quite believe that he had swallowed so many hair ties in total, but they just kept coming out.
"At Westway Vets, we have removed all sorts of things like socks, toys and even a rubber duck from dogs, but this is unusual with a cat.
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"Hair ties are a common hazard but for a cat to eat so many is certainly out of the ordinary and really extreme. He has been very lucky because they could have caused an obstruction which could have been life-threatening.
"We had a 50-50 decision to make on after the scan showed them all in a clump. The endoscope is minimally invasive and using it meant we could avoid surgery when there is a greater risk of infection afterwards and a longer stay in hospital. It meant Nero was able to go home the same day and was absolutely fine."
Nero has now made a full recovery.
Amy added: "We’ve never seen him eat one of the hair ties but we can only assume he was helping himself when I left them on the bedside table. He is naughty and very curious, but it seems ridiculous that a cat would eat 11 hair ties.
"He was sick one day and a hair tie came up and I thought he had just eaten one of them, but it happened again two days later. It was a shock when we discovered he had eaten 11. I am so grateful for what the team at Westway were able to do for him. We were offered the opportunity of surgery but didn’t want to go down that route and the procedure he had meant a much quicker recovery.
"I really appreciate what they did for him and all hair ties are now locked away in a drawer out of his reach."
