topic Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties in Beauty

Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

LizFS — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 03:06:13 GMT

Hi,

I was reading a thread from 2010 (yeah, I know) about cats stealing makeup brushes, and I came across a post from someone whose cats love to take off with her elastic hair ties. And while I realize this is not exactly a beauty related question, I had to chime in.

My cat also loves elastic hair ties. She goes just loony tunes about them. She can smell them a mile away (not sure how), and will shriek, just SHRIEK, if she thinks you have one and aren't sharing it. She loves to carry them around the house, chomping on them, often times seeming to treat them as though they were kittens she was grooming. And because she wanted them so much and had such a good time with them, we let her have them.

One day, Ms. Smudge started meowing very loudly, in a way that was very different from her normal "pay attention to me NOW" voice. It was a sad, mournful, deep kind of meow, and she sounded like she was in pain. So I took her to my vet.

During the exam, he felt a mass in her stomach. It was large, the size of a baseball. So they took an x-ray. They could clearly see the mass, and said it was a tumor that had to come out and be biopsied. She was meowing because it was causing pain when she ate. We scheduled the surgery and waited to find out if Smudge had cancer and what that was going to mean.

Thank heavens, Smudge came through the surgery with flying colors, and if you've read this far, you've probably guessed that she didn't have cancer, either. We brought our now perfectly healthy kitty home, along with a plastic bag containing the undigested pieces of approximately fifty elastic hair ties she had eaten over the years.

I had no idea, when she was playing with these things, that she was swallowing them. I had seen her chewing on them, but I never saw pieces laying around, I would find whole hair ties in groups behind the toilet or under the coffee table and figured she was storing them there - it just never occurred to me that she was swallowing them, because we kept finding the whole ties. But she was swallowing them. And they almost killed her.

Just a cautionary heads-up.

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

Pinkroses — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 03:10:48 GMT

I bet my Daisy would do that.! I give her scrunies. Glad your cat is ok!

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

MarenSeattle — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 03:18:12 GMT

I keep ribbons, rubber bands, string, anything that she can swallow away from my cat. I DO let her play with the BIG scrunchies, but I take it away and put it out of reach so she can only have it when I'm supervising. They're like little kids, I swear. And the thing with cats is they have no regurgitating action (or something) -- once something starts going down, they're committed to swallowing it. Every time I see her with something I'm on top of it.

SO happy your cat is okay and that you know her well enough to know the difference in her meows. She's lucky and so are you!! :-)

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

TY — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 03:35:25 GMT

Liz, my dog nearly choked on a scarf that was in her toy basket, so I'm not surprised that your cat would eat hairband elastics. My daughter is an animal health tech and they sometimes have patients who have swallowed all sorts of stuff (mostly dogs though) so I'm glad that your pet is better. It's a good idea to keep stuff that pets can get into away from them. I put all my hair stuff in a basket with a lid so my cat's can't get into them.

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

ANewHue — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 03:45:54 GMT

Your post caught my eye because I have three rescues, two kittens that also go ga-ga over them and elastic bands as well One of them loves to run around with them in his mouth when he finds one, it"s like he struck gold. I don't know where they kept getting the elastic bands from because I keep them in a bag in a drawer. My DD thought it was cute they were playing with them but I grabbed them away and explained the danger. Glad yours is fine.

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

Donnalona — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 03:47:09 GMT

Thanks for the heads up and I just want to add that on TV the other nite they had a cat which was an indoor outdoor cat swallow his little play mice and needed surgery. All because he was used to catching mice outside. So examine all toys for your pets and like children if they can swallow it throw it away.

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

GSPgirl — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 03:50:02 GMT

My moms kitty died after she ate a ribbon. I keep ribbons and used dental floss away from my cat.

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

MarenSeattle — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 04:28:31 GMT

On 1/30/2015 donnalona said: Thanks for the heads up and I just want to add that on TV the other nite they had a cat which was an indoor outdoor cat swallow his little play mice and needed surgery. All because he was used to catching mice outside. So examine all toys for your pets and like children if they can swallow it throw it away.

When I get mine a new toy, I pull off any feathers or "eyes", etc., that could come off and she could swallow. I really feel like I'm overly protective (when I was growing up we had cats who lived long lives who weren't as "sheltered") but I can't help it. I feel responsibil for her as much as I would feel for an infant/toddler.

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

Caitlinh429 — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 04:46:43 GMT

Yup, my cat is fascinated with all hair ties, elastic bands, ribbons, etc. My mother's cat also died when she was a kid from eating a rubber band, so I grew up with my mother constantly telling me to put away my hair ties and pick up rubber bands. Now I tell others It's especially hard during xmas time though, I always find my cat finding ribbons.

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

shoekitty — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 04:54:00 GMT

They do not make most dog and cat toys safe! They really need to have standards. I guess they feel they are cats and dogs so why bother? I am glad so many owners are more than savvy though when it comes to protecting pets.

I have issue with plastic grocery bags, which I am glad are being outlawed. My SIL lost her dog to one, and I had a cat who had a near tragedy had I not been there. There is a reason there is a warning on them

My daughter's cat Loves scrunchies. He goes wild for them. I think he carries the same one around though. I will remind her to be careful with them around though.

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

feline groovy — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 09:02:39 GMT

Excellent first post, Liz; welcome to the Q boards.

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

feline groovy — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 09:07:50 GMT

On 1/30/2015 MarenSeattle said:
On 1/30/2015 donnalona said: Thanks for the heads up and I just want to add that on TV the other nite they had a cat which was an indoor outdoor cat swallow his little play mice and needed surgery. All because he was used to catching mice outside. So examine all toys for your pets and like children if they can swallow it throw it away.

When I get mine a new toy, I pull off any feathers or "eyes", etc., that could come off and she could swallow. I really feel like I'm overly protective (when I was growing up we had cats who lived long lives who weren't as "sheltered") but I can't help it. I feel responsibil for her as much as I would feel for an infant/toddler.

That's because animals and children are the most-vulnerable living beings.

Bless you and your kittygirl, Maren.

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

sfnative — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 09:14:08 GMT

So glad your kitty is OK. Phew!!!

When I purchased our Burmese cats, the very special breeder told us to keep an eye out for anything on the floor like string, thread, rubber bands, hair devices, etc., as these cats WILL eat them. Thanks goodness she gave us that heads up, because I did catch both of them numerous times throughout their long lives licking up the teeniest bit of lint off the carpet. Now, that could not have been a tasty morsel!

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

Luvtoshopathome — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 10:29:17 GMT

I'm so happy your little fur baby is ok. Once around Christmas time my extremely noses and playful Persian cat took a spool of ribbon, well it got caught so tight around her paw she was screaming. Thank God my nephew was here, he held her while I cut it off, it was so tight I couldn't believe it. Now nothing is left anywhere around for them to get at but now I notice when I come home from the supermarket with plastic bags, her sister started to chew on the plastic grocery bags. All of the supermarkets here use plastic bags. I'm going to have to look into buying something other than plastic. I swear they are just like little kids, you have to watch their every move, but I don't know what I'd do without them. They give unconditional love, don't they?

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

Toppers — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 11:16:30 GMT

Yeah, kitties are so curious by nature, aren't they, and they will get into anything.

My kitty also likes to chew on plastic and on tape.

We have to be careful about what we leave out, to make sure that she doesn't get into anything, either.

Liz, I am glad your kitty is fine. Thanks for the warning.

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

violann — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 14:17:53 GMT

Any little ring of anything is "Game On!" For Buddie, so we watch him like a hawk. Polly is a plastic chewer, and we keep everything out of her contact area too. I use the neon colored "magic" dusting tools and the funniest thing ever is seeing one of the cats carrying one in h/h mouth- looks like some monster cartoon animal, but that's definitely off the list too because the dusters shed their fluffy hairs and I don't want THAT in Buddie's stomach either!

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

Mimichic — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 20:20:34 GMT

Pets don't understand things like that might harm them. That is why their owners need to protect them. Pets are just like babies. You would not have things around babies that they would put in their mouth and possibly swallow or choke on, so you shouldn't do that with your furry babies either.

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

Southernfriedchick — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 21:42:02 GMT

My cat loves Ziploc bags, and will lick them until... The generic ones, she doesn't like. Only the name brand for my Baby.

LOL

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

NoelSeven — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 21:44:08 GMT

One of our cats loves hair ties also. We try to be so careful, not leaving one out, but it happens.

Another one to be careful of is rubber bands. They are seriously dangerous if a cat or dog finds one, or more than one.

Re: Cats and Elastic Hair Ties

NoelSeven — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 21:50:02 GMT

My other cat is nuts for plastic bags, including the bags from QVC. My daughter read that many bags are coated with bone dust to prevent them from sticking, I suppose they taste good to her.

But I worry they're dirty or coated with something else, so we have to be really vigilant, stopping her from licking. She tracks them down, it's the weirdest thing.