Conference misery::feline_v1

    Just a thought---
          maybe your kitty is having "teething" problems.  I know my
    cat love to chew shoelaces, elastics, hair ties, and raw hide.
    I got her one of those soft plastic chew toys.  She uses it
    quite frequently.  Maybe her teeth are bothering her, or its
    instinct!??
    

    Aja used to be a string junky also. She once got deathly sick
    from it and we took a midnight run to the vet's. I honestly
    didn't think she's make the night, she was that sick.
    
    Anyhow, there wasn't much they could do except watch her for a
    couple days and examine the 'poop du jour'. All things should
    pass and soon the string did...
    
    Luckily, it was a pastime she outgrew (although she still loves
    to suck on a wet towel....).
    
    Edd
    
    

    Tristan doesn't so much eat string as play with it.  We've simply
    had to make our house cat proof for him.  We always put any string
    like object away in a closet or a closed room.  We keep the door
    to our study closed so there is always some place to put things
    that could be dangerous.  We've also put a child-proof thingy on
    the door to the cabinet that contains the trash can, so they can't
    get anything out of there.  Sometimes prevention is easier than
    training or curing.
    
    Karen, Tristan and Tenzing.

    Re: .3
    
    Is there a problem with the kitties playing with the string as long
    as they don't eat it?  I hope not since we have strings tied in
    convenient spots around our house for Oscar and Porty to play with.

    Re: .4
    
    Could they chew a piece off or get the whole thing loose?  Then
    there is a danger.
    

    Caution:

    A friend of mine has a cat that swallowed string.  She took it to the
    vet who told her never to pull on the string unless you know that its
    only swallowed or in the process of swallowing a very small piece. 
    Pulling might cause cause internal damage to the cat if the string got
    knotted.  Let the cat pass it out either end on its own.  Kitty lube of 
    some sort might help.

    Re: let it pass out of the cat on its own.
          
    I have also heard that pulling can be very bad (from either end),
    but if I noticed a string I'd take the cat to the vet.  It could
    already be tangled internally.
    

    .2:
    
    "Poop du jour"????!!!!   Believe me, I recognize the seriousness
    of the base note, but I am sitting here in my cube laughing my head
    off at that one!!!
    
    (I may have that done up in cross-stitch!!)
    
    Now wiping tears from my eyes even as we speak,
    
    Jane

    re: .2  
    
    I thought it was pretty funny too, and it's my kitty with the problem!!
    The only drawback was the particular piece of string was nearly two feet long
    when she passed it, and it suprised her so much she passed it *all over* the basement.
    
    Now isn't *that* a vivid image.......  ;-)                                
    
    Mary-Michael

    I think we may have solved the problem.  We went out on Sunday and
    found some very thin rawhide chews for puppies.  She thinks they're
    wonderful!  She chews and chews on them, and has expressed less
    and less interest in shoelaces, mini blind pulls, sweatpant ties,
    etc.
    
    Only problem is, she keeps "burying" them under the carpet....
    
    Mary-Michael
    

    Oh, I tried those once - the slim ones like pencils.  A few of
    my guys loved them - carried them around and chewed like crazy.
    I also have tried the smallest nyla (sp?) bones - Lara really
    likes it - she thinks she owns the one I can find.  The thin
    rawhide sure does get lost easily.

    RE: .10
    
    My cats like those, too. Panther is so cute when he struts around
    with one in his mouth (he is trying to look macho).
    
    Deb

    I do alot of cross-stitch, and Shanti LOVES to watch. To the point
    that she ever so carefully sneaks up and looks for a string just
    "hanging". And if she finds one, she grabs it and starts chewing.
    As soon as I catch her and yell "NO" she runs as fast as she can
    looking out of the corner of her eye at me like "You're not gonna
    get this, it's MINE NOW!"
    
    then when I finally get it out of her mouth, it's like "You rotten
    thing! That was MY string!"
    
    What's even worse is when you clean the litter box and find things
    attached with different colored string. I wish she didn't like them!
    

    Re:  .10
    
    Did it take much to get your kitty interested in chewing the rawhide
    chews or did they take to it immediately?  I tried these with Bailey
    when her chewing problem (actually that's my problem with her chewing)
    started and the best I could get out of her was one or two uninterested
    bats at them, she never chewed them.
    
    Since that time I've managed to become extremely neat in order to
    keep shoelaces on my shoes, straps on my bras, etc.
    
    Jan
    

    Mine wouldn't look at them when I first bought them. I had given
    a friend's dog a rawhide bone for Christmas, I a remember her telling
    me that often the dog wouldn't look at the bone until they gave
    it some flavor, so they boiled it in beef broth. I tried this with
    the rawhide sticks and the boys and Eirene took to them like a fish
    takes to water. (I'm not sure if I used beef broth or clam juice).
    
    Deb

    The real problem with cats eating string (thread) is what it can
    do to them if there is a needle on the end of it.  My cat Lucky
    when he was 8 months old found the sewing box open and ate one of
    the threads in there with out our knowing it.  When he stopped eating
    and started loosing weight we took him to the vet (same place as
    we used last Friday) and when they exrayed him we could see the
    needle in the intestines.  The needle had tried to pass thru and
    had gone in and out the walls of the intestines effectively sewing
    his intestines togather.  They operated and he was lucky ;-) enough
    to come out of it with no life long problems.  What a way to diet!!
    Ken