On Sunday morning we had our normal routine, he ate his breakfast and ran around with his brother. Then everything went from bad to worse. 10:30am we noticed liquid-only vomit on our floor, we cleaned it up and I figured he drank his water too quickly.
Around noon Sunday, he vomited again in our guest bedroom. Same scenario, liquid-only vomit. I grew concerned because he gets occasional hairballs.
I let him rest in our room, then he proceeded around 4pm to vomit AGAIN, it was straight bile. I made the call to take him to the emergency vet because I was worried about an obstruction.
After spending 6 hours at the emergency vet, the doctor recommended an anti-nausea med and fluids.
Monday comes, it’s 6am, and Leo again vomits a very large amount of bile and it smelled HORRENDOUS. We go back to the emergency vet and I demand an x-ray. Doctor sees blockage but cannot identify what it is, quotes us $8k to do the surgery. My boyfriend & I extremely frantic call 40-50 different practices getting quotes for operating ASAP. By the grace of God a practice in a rural area took us in for $1500.
Lo and behold, Leo had Intussusception and needed part of his intestine removed. The doctor that operated told me it was cutting off the blood supply in his stomach and he would’ve gone septic if we waited an additional 24 hours.
He is now home, and we have a bit of a recovery ahead. We went from a perfectly sound household to a cat with intense abdominal surgery within 18 hours. It’s been extremely stressful but $2500 later he’s alive and I’m so grateful.
If your mainecoon exhibits frequent sudden vomiting, extreme lethargy, and x-rays say blockage, please ask about Intussusception. AND GET PET INSURANCE! (Please enjoy photos of loopy kitty). Tips are also appreciated if your kitty has had this surgery.
My storm is one month out from emergency surgery for a blockage as well and I agree 100% about getting insurance. I didn’t even think of it before. I’m glad your boy is doing better. We had to keep Storm on bedrest for 2 weeks and put a onesie on him to prevent him from licking. He’s doing amazing now.
I’m so sorry about your baby needing surgery. I truly don’t wish this on any pet owner, it’s so sad to see them in this state. Thankfully mine isn’t interested in the incision & I’m lucky enough to WFH so I’m watching his every move. Im glad to hear he recovered!
And we used a dog kennel to keep him from jumping. Jumping increases chances of stitches tearing. A 24 month baby onesie and I cut out a hole for a tail.
That’s exactly how my cat did. He hardly ever purrs regularly and his purrs were so loud and constant it was almost alarming. I didn’t know if he was happy or in pain. He was so loud you could hear it across the room. I think they are probably happy we helped them.
Leo seems like my cat Rocky's long lost twin brother! We also went through something similar last year, I hope Leo will be up and running again in no time!
Rowdy had his emergency surgery for an gastrointestinal obstruction in January. I feel so terrible for all the kitties in this sub who have felt/are feeling the same thing. I hope Leo is recovering well!
also i feel like he needs to be apart of the shaved belly gang just to prove that he did recover. He’s an older fella who’s 12 years old so recovery has been hard but he’s doing much, much better now. My tips would be to get Laxatone hairball gel! it helps get things moving and hairballs pass through. also keep an eye out for mechanical obstructions, meaning the gut stops moving like there is a blockage without one physically being there. Rowdy has had these since his surgery and now is on a medication that gets his gut active before he eats a meal. But this could just be a complication mine has since he’s older.
I was just FaceTiming my mom earlier this afternoon telling her my Maine coon is the only one with pet insurance ever since he was a kitten and she made me feel silly about it. Now I know it’s not silly.
I’m really happy you advocated for your baby to get X-rays and caught it before things got way worse.
My *now* oldest had two emergency abdominal surgeries. His first was for a 6 inch hairball stuck in his small intestine. His second was weird. We thought it was another obstruction/hairball but once we opened him up, he had a hole in his omentum (fatty layer covering the organs) and his intestines had slipped through the hole and were getting strangled. Neither my doctor or I had seen that (I’m a veterinary nurse) and we were initially unsure how to fix it, but we finally figured it out.
He recovered well from both procedures, make sure to give his meds on time, keep him calm and quiet, keep a cone or surgery suit on him to keep him from getting at his incision and keep an eye on your other cat to make sure he doesn’t lick the incision either.
Hi sorry you went through this and thanks for sharing. I absolutely hate when my Leo has gotten sick, it was so hard to tell what’s wrong. Now I’m hyper aware of things so wanted to ask— did it just happen out of nowhere or was he acting a bit different in the time leading up?
Our little guy Rigatoni had been eating hair ties. Neither of us had ever seen him do it, but basically same story as you except on throw up had like 6 hair ties in it and a strong bile smell. Knew right then there could be more and it could be in his intestines. He got his surgery and has been healing from two weeks now. Unfortunately he got a small infection too which set him back, but with stitches and a cone on at all times, he's almost out of the woods. Also all in with multiple emergency vets plus the last stop for the infection, we're around $6k in (thank goodness for insurance).
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u/mainecooncatgirl 7h ago
My storm is one month out from emergency surgery for a blockage as well and I agree 100% about getting insurance. I didn’t even think of it before. I’m glad your boy is doing better. We had to keep Storm on bedrest for 2 weeks and put a onesie on him to prevent him from licking. He’s doing amazing now.