Hazardous toys and risk of obstructions

My mother had to bring one of the cats she adopted from me, Glow, to the vet for emergency surgery today. Mom noticed the cat wasn't herself and it appeared (in a multi-cat household, it's hard to keep track of everyone) that Glow had not eaten or used the litter box in a day or so.

She paid over $1,000 for the poor sick kitty to have an Xray, subcutaneous fluids and surgery to remove the items the cat had swallowed. At least a foot and a half of thin yellow ribbon and several elastic bands were extricated from the cats twisted and mangles intestines and bowels.

Please do an inventory of your pet cat or dogs toys and throw away any of the following dangerous articles that may cause an obstruction or perforation:

• ribbon or string - anything less than an inch wide can be ingested, so use long thick strips of fleece to attach dangling toys or mice
• tinfoil balls - because they can chew off bits that will harm the intestines
• styrofoam packing chips
• elastic bands ( some cats like Fefe tend to steal hair elastics as well and then eat them)
• twist ties (use plastic bread tags to keep bags closed)
• do not use tinsel on your Xmas tree
• small toys with foil, jingle bells, the eyes on fuzzy mice, many small things that can come off a toy will go down a cat's throat easily enough, but it will not pass in the stool
• sewing needles and thread - make sure these are put away in drawers the cat cannot reach
• plastic bags of any sort - some cats will chew and swallow parts of shopping bags, then may not be able to vomit or poop it out