# My Cat After Surgery



## audreyhb (May 19, 2009)

Hello All,

I have a wonderful, funny, bright and active cat named Ferdinand. He is so curious and active that he ended up eating an object he couldn't digest. It was surgecially removed and now he is home to recover. The only problem is he doesn't want to recover. I bought a dog crate for him to stay in so he doesn't run or jump or do anything to compromise his incision. He hates it and tries his best (sometimes very forcefully) to get out. I'll let him out of the crate sometimes to strech his legs but it's very hard to keep him from jumping on tables and chairs. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to keep my cat grounded? He needs to heal for the next two weeks. I also wanted to know if anyone has any techniques I can use to keep my cat from eating inedible objects. I'd love to hear your advice. Thank you.


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

The dog crate is a good idea, that's really the only way to keep him from jumping and running. You can probably give him a little more freedom as time goes on and he starts healing.

The only way to stop him from eating things he shouldn't is to keep them out of his reach. You need to cat proof your house and remove anything he could chew.


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## gunterkat (Aug 19, 2006)

If Ferdinand is a very young cat he may grow out of eating things he shouldn't. Meanwhile, like Doodle said, work on catproofing your house. :wink: 
Purrs, prayers, plus fingers and paws crossed. :angel


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## audreyhb (May 19, 2009)

Thanks for the advice. To cat proof my house I blocked off some areas to make sure they can't get to them. Places like behind the stove, the pantry, etc... I also tried to pick up every little thing on the floor. Is there anything else I can do?


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## WhiteKitties (Dec 22, 2008)

I'm guessing Ferdinand had his stomach and/or intestines cut open for the surgery? How long is his incision? My Fergie had a four inch long incision from her surgery to remove eight inches of yarn from her intestine, with 16 stitches for the outer layer of skin. She wasn't feeling too playful for a few days after the surgery, but started to play again around day five. You have to keep in mind that your cat has several layers of stitches, so it's not like he's going to suddenly split his belly open if he jumps or stretches. Obviously you don't want him bouncing off the walls, but some play is fine. And by day ten or so, if he doesn't have anything around his neck to keep him away from his stitches he may start biting them out. Again, not the end of the world as long as the skin is healed together and he's not ripping holes in his belly. After Fergie started biting her stitches out at day ten, I went back to get the rest out, and she was just fine. I had thought she was playing pretty well with the stitches, but when we got her home that day she just exploded and bounced around the house like a superball on Redbull. 

I also took a daily picture of Fergie's stitches, so I could compare them. Some days the skin looked irritated in spots, so it was good to have a comparison to look at and see that she wasn't licking/biting herself enough to cause damage. Your kitty WILL lick the stitches if he can get at them, and you have to trust that he's not dumb enough to hurt himself.

As far as keeping him from doing this again, you pretty much have to keep anything away from him that he might try to eat. Remember that because of the way a cat's tongue is designed, he might not be ABLE to spit out something that he shouldn't eat. All of my stringy cat toys are kept in my closed pantry and are considered to be 'supervised' toys. If we buy catnip mice for the girls, I cut the tails off before I let the cats have them, because I don't want to find out if two inches of felt is enough to cause a problem. Eventually, I ended up putting childproofing latches on my cabinets that have breakables in them, because Fergie wanted to find her toys and would get into the cabinets looking for them. After she knocked out a stack of bowls and broke half of them, the latches went on.

Most importantly, is Ferdinand eating and drinking? We had to hand feed Fergie to get her eating again, so that came to my mind about your kitty. If he is, that's great and he's probably doing pretty good. If he's not, do whatever it takes to get him eating again, whether it's smearing wet food on his nose or syringe feeding him! Good luck and I hope he's better soon!


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## nanook (Jun 12, 2005)

I agree, if he's freaking out in the kennel, I think putting him in a room, even a bathroom should be fine. Just keep him as quiet as you can and monitor the wound well. 
I feel your pain! Nanook was a vacuum cleaner when he was younger and, although I was very lucky and he didn't ever need surgery, I had many sleepless nights making sure the -fill in the blank- passed. And I thought I _had_ kitten proofed, but he got into things no other kitten had before.
Put away rubber bands, hair things, earings, paper clips, twist ties, string, ribbon. Obviously, household cleaners, toxic plants/flowers, chocolate or anything else he may eat. Just walk through your house, with an eagle eye, and try to think "would that interest a cat" If it might, put it away.
Hope Ferdinand recovers quickly!


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## audreyhb (May 19, 2009)

Thanks so much for your help! We have 8 days left of recovery and so far so good. Let's hope he and I can keep it up.


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