A cat choked on a fish bone, what should I do?

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Cats are very picky eaters, so in very rare cases they can choke. For this reason, the question of what to do if a cat chokes, as a rule, appears infrequently. Compared to a dog or child, a feline is at much less risk of eating or chewing something that could cause choking.

In some cases, cats can produce sounds that are very reminiscent of signs of asphyxia, although in fact there is no threat to the life and health of the animal. Therefore, you should first carefully study the symptoms indicating that the cat is actually choking.

Symptoms and signs.

You can identify the problem by some of the symptoms and signs that the animal exhibits.

The animal may cough constantly. This will continue until the bone comes out.
The cat is breathing frequently and heavily. This symptom may also indicate other diseases, but if the pet ate fish or meat the day before, the cause may well be a bone.
Vomiting. The cat will try to regurgitate the bone. Constant gagging indicates a stuck bone.
Profuse salivation. The drool may hang directly from the mouth without the cat's mouth being tightly closed.
The animal tries to pull out the bone on its own. In this case, the cat can move its paw along its face, as if trying to pull out a bone.

First aid

If your cat eats fish and chokes, don't panic. Sharp and hasty actions can provoke a laryngeal spasm, which can lead to suffocation. Before you do anything, you need to take the following actions :

Wrap the cat in thick cloth, just so that the head sticks out;
Apply gentle pressure to the lower jaw and examine the oral cavity. If a fish bone is stuck between your teeth, carefully remove it with tweezers. It is better if one family member holds the cat between his knees while the other removes the bone. Under no circumstances should this be done with your fingers or hand;
If the foreign object is far away and not visible, hit the cat between the shoulder blades;
You need to sit on the floor, turn the animal’s head away from you and rhythmically press with your hands on both sides, which will provoke a cough. The cat's bone will come out on its own;
If the cat is not conscious, then you need to open its mouth wide and carefully remove the bone with tweezers;
Then you need to tilt the cat head down and use a damp cloth to remove excess liquid;
After cleaning the oral cavity, artificial respiration should be given to the cat through the nose;
If an object is stuck in a cat’s throat, if it is sharp and located very deep, you should not remove it yourself if the animal is conscious. You can damage the mucous membrane and cause injury and suppuration;
If your cat vomits, the bone may come out with it. Especially if she's stuck nearby. But if you feel that you cannot cope with the problem on your own, the cat will need the help of a specialist who will remove the bone;
If an animal has swallowed petroleum products, acid or a sharp object, it is impossible to induce vomiting. You can remove a bone from a cat by giving it a few tablespoons of vegetable oil, but if you cannot see the object or it is deep, contact a specialist.

Since the animal’s larynx is very sensitive, if the bone is stuck very deeply, the doctor will be able to remove it professionally. In some cases, the animal may require anesthesia and disinfection. Doctors often encounter similar problems, so removing even deep bones in a cat’s mouth will not be difficult for them.

What to do if your cat has a bone stuck in its throat?

Naturally, the best solution is to go to a veterinary clinic. Almost every city has at least one 24-hour veterinary clinic. There is always a doctor on duty there. He will conduct an inspection and take the necessary measures.

Some people first try to remove the bone from the animal’s throat on their own. This is not always possible. The animal may show aggression and it will not be possible to examine it carefully. The cat may bite or scratch its owner. Therefore, it is better to immediately contact a specialist. Many people are interested in the question, what to do if a cat has a fish bone stuck in its throat?

How to tell if a cat is choking

The cat lost his voice: reasons and what to do

If an animal is choking, this can be understood by the following symptoms:

the pet begins to cough heavily;
the animal eats, coughs up, spits out a foreign object;
the cat begins to choke;
the cat cannot swallow food;
profuse drooling;
loss of consciousness;
when opening the mouth, a foreign object is visible in the larynx;
coughing up blood;
vomiting reflex.

If a cat chokes, one or all symptoms may appear depending on the location of the pathological process. They suggest the cause of the attack of suffocation. The owner must first determine what to do if the cat chokes.

The main thing is, if your cat is choking, don’t panic.

If your cat has a fish bone stuck

Despite the fact that the cat's jaw and mucous membranes are adapted to eating and chewing even large fish bones, there are times when the bone gets stuck in the throat. This is why veterinarians do not recommend giving domestic cats heads and tails from fish, as well as vertebral bones. They are the ones that most often get stuck in a cat's throat.

If such a problem arises, the animal will refuse to eat, cough, and try to pull out the foreign body with its paw. There is also regular gagging and excessive salivation.

In this case, you need to contact the nearest veterinary clinic. Specialists will help remove the bone from the throat and prescribe treatment if necessary.

What to do if your dog or cat chokes on a bone?

When a pet appears in the house, all attention is focused on it: you want to create maximum comfort and coziness so that your beloved furry grows and develops in a good atmosphere. But if you decide to take on such responsibility, then you must understand that his life is now completely in your hands.

This means that any owner must have at least minimal knowledge in order to help their pet in a timely manner in the event of any unforeseen situation. And one of these is, if he suddenly chokes, what should he do? After all, illiterate actions or lack thereof can even lead to death. What do veterinarians say about this?

In fact, an animal can choke on almost anything, because it is restless, like a child, and does not always understand the danger its actions can lead to. “My dog or cat choked. What to do?".

Often this is the question that concerned pet owners turn to the veterinarian with, often without even fully understanding what this concept includes. Typically, the diet of pets, especially dogs, contains bones - chicken, beef, fish or any other.

And, despite the fact that many veterinarians constantly warn that eating these seeds is an unsafe activity, many owners still hope for chance. So it turns out that a sharp sliver gets stuck in the throat, esophagus, or, even worse, the respiratory tract.

The main symptoms of the presence of a foreign body in the pharynx or esophagus are constant and often unsuccessful urge to vomit, which has an increasing character. The animal begins to rush around, trying to use its paw to get the interfering object out of its mouth, sometimes it cannot swallow not only food or liquid, but even its own saliva.

If a chicken bone is stuck

This is the most dangerous type of bone. In nature, cats often catch birds and eat them. Their jaws are capable of crunching hard bones and swallowing them. A domestic cat cannot always cope with such food. Therefore, many veterinarians do not recommend giving chicken bones to pets. Their fragments can get stuck in the throat or scratch it.

If a chicken bone gets stuck in a cat's throat, the animal will exhibit all the signs described above. To remove this residue from the throat, you must contact a veterinary clinic. The specialist will remove the bone from the throat and give recommendations on proper nutrition for the cat.

A cat choked on a bone, what should I do?

Identifying Symptoms of a Cat Choking

Pay attention to symptoms of choking. It is very important to be able to quickly identify the symptoms of real suffocation in a cat. This may include:

inability to breathe;
coughing;
salivation and vomiting;
the animal's attempts to clear its mouth with its paws.

Be aware of the existence of symptoms only similar to suffocation. This includes increased breathing, during which the muscles of the whole body work, and the cat itself makes whistling sounds when exhaling.

Such body movements and sounds can seriously frighten the owner of the animal. Cats can easily confuse their owners, because they often begin to cough when regurgitating hairballs or eaten grass.

In fact, cat owners very often confuse regurgitation with choking, which is completely normal for their pets.

Assess the situation to determine if the cat may have choked. Ask yourself: “What did the cat just do?” If she was sleeping or quietly wandering around the room, and then suddenly began making choking sounds, then she is unlikely to have choked. She didn't put anything in her mouth, so nothing could get stuck in her throat.

Try to calm the cat down when it is choking. Episodes of mild choking can occur when a sudden deep breath from an animal pulls the soft palate partially into the larynx (close to the windpipe). Subsequent anxious breaths continue to pull the soft palate toward the windpipe. To solve the problem, you just need to calm the cat.

Talk kindly to the animal, try petting it, and then scratch its chin.
Sometimes the situation can be corrected by swallowing, during which the soft palate is released and takes its correct position. To get your cat to swallow, try offering her a very tasty treat.

How to remove a bone from a cat's throat at home.

Many owners try to remove a stuck bone from a cat's throat on their own. If the animal does not show aggression, you can try to do this at home.

The first thing the owner does is try to feed the animal with bread crumbs or soft food. If after this the bone still bothers your pet, you can try to remove it with tweezers. This requires the participation of at least two people.

One should fix the cat's head and open its mouth. Many domestic cats allow their owners to do this. The second participant in the process must shine a flashlight into the pet’s throat and carefully examine it.

If the bone is clearly visible and accessible, you can remove it using tweezers. This must be done very carefully and hold your head tightly. If the animal tries to escape at this moment, the mucous membrane of the throat can be damaged.

How does a pet behave if it chokes on some food?

Typically, an animal will get into trouble if its diet contains food that contains hard or semi-solid parts, such as bones. Veterinarians do not recommend giving cats this food. It is better to feed them only soft parts of fish or meat. You can't rely on your pet's teeth.

The first priority for a person is to identify symptoms that indicate that a kitten or adult animal is choking. To do this, you need to take a closer look at your pet. If he chokes on, for example, a fish bone, the following symptoms usually appear:

The presence of a hard object in your pet's throat is indicated by the urge to vomit. If the bone is stuck deep, then the cat’s attempts to remove the bone by vomiting will increase, but they will not bring success.
Usually in this state he cannot swallow small pieces of food or drink water. Panicking cat can't swallow his own saliva.
Signs of vomiting may not appear, but severe vomiting may begin. If its intensity is high from the very beginning, it means that the animal actually choked on a solid piece of food.

Sometimes the owner just thinks that something has happened to his pet. Usually a person is mistaken if a cat begins to tremble, has convulsions, opens its mouth, and coughs. It may just be a wave-like cough, which makes it clear that there is trouble in the pet’s respiratory system.

Therefore, a person must be able to distinguish these symptoms from vomiting that appears in a pet when a bone gets into the throat.

If the cat coughs a lot, then you need to call the veterinarian, as this means that the pet has an infectious lesion or stomach disease. Most often, such symptoms appear in a pet due to a cold or gastritis.

Some cats, quite rarely, have an abnormal throat structure that can cause symptoms similar to choking on a hard object. The same urges (vomiting, choking) appear in cats with an allergic lesion, but other symptoms should also arise.

How to help your pet with vomiting and choking

If the owner knows that before signs of trouble appeared the animal ate bones, then most often they cause vomiting if they fail to pass through the pet’s throat. Therefore, a person must act quickly.

First, a choking cat is checked to ensure adequate breathing. If she breathes freely enough, it means the foreign body is shallow. A person can try to get it out with tweezers. It will not be easy for one owner to do this; an assistant will be needed, since an animal panicking due to fear of suffocation will scratch, twist, and run away from people.

Therefore, the assistant must hold the pet tightly and bring it to a bright light source. The owner of the pet opens the cat's mouth and, if the tip of the bone is visible, tries to grab it with tweezers and then remove it from the pet's throat.

There is another way to fix the problem. You need to pour a little vegetable oil into the mouth. It will force the bone into the animal’s stomach and help it put its respiratory system in order.
Owners who have experience with cats recommend in such situations to lower the pet upside down (as mothers do with their children if the child is choking), and then hit the cat hard on the chest or slap it on the back. This will help shake the bone out of your throat.
You can try to artificially induce vomiting. Then the pet's throat will contract and push the bone out. You need to act quickly, but do not use force, as this will cause stress in the cat.

Kittens often choke due to the speed of eating food. If this happens, the baby is picked up and warm water is poured into his mouth. You can lightly pat your pet on the back with your palm.

It is forbidden to give your pet vodka or alcohol, or laxatives. Sometimes surgery may be necessary.

Source: https://DrugBarsuk.ru/kot-podavilsya-kostyu-chto-delat/

The cat scratched its throat with a bone - what to do?

A bone doesn't always get stuck in a cat's throat. Passing into the esophagus, it can simply scratch the mucous membrane. The animal's behavior and symptoms are often similar to those of a bone stuck in the throat.

Only a specialist can make an accurate diagnosis. Even if the owner, opening the animal’s mouth wide, does not see the bone, this does not mean that it is not there. Only a veterinarian can accurately determine that the throat is scratched.

If he scratches his throat and doesn’t eat, what should I do? In this case, the animal may refuse food for a short period. The veterinarian may prescribe a throat treatment with furatsilin solution.

This can be done at home or visit a clinic. During the healing period, you can offer your pet soft food in the form of porridge, boiled rice, thick soup or soft food. The scratch does not bother the cat for long, and in a day or two the animal will begin to eat normally.

Features of the pharynx and esophagus in cats

The digestive tract of an animal begins with the oral cavity. Food is chewed before entering the throat. There are 2 parts in it:

respiratory;
digestive.

If a foreign object gets stuck in the throat, it is dangerous because it can move into both the digestive and respiratory systems. The pharynx is a hollow organ through which the bolus of food enters the esophagus.

A veterinarian's examination is a last resort in such a situation.

For your information! The esophagus is constantly in a dormant state until food arrives. It contains muscle tissue that moves the food bolus down the gastrointestinal tract. Its cavity is lined with a mucous membrane, under which there are glandular cells.

When food enters the esophagus, muscle tissue is activated, pushing it towards the stomach.

How much does it cost to remove a bone from a cat's throat?

As a rule, this service in clinics is called something like this: “Removal of a foreign body from the pharynx, oral cavity, mouth.”

In Moscow, prices range from 500 to 1500 rubles. You may need to add the cost of the appointment to this, but this needs to be clarified with the chosen clinic.

Addresses of clinics in Moscow providing these services can be viewed at the link: https://zoon.ru/msk/m/izvlechenie_inorodnogo_tela_u_zhivotnogo/

We found information on the website of the Kursk clinic - price from 1100 rubles.

You need to call and check with each specific clinic.

This procedure may cost differently. The cost depends on the complexity of the operation. The price may be affected by the size of the animal, which affects the amount of anesthesia. Veterinary clinics often have a price list that indicates the average cost of such a service. However, it all depends on the specific case.

When do you need a veterinarian?

The help of a professional doctor is necessary in the following cases:

complete lack of knowledge about first aid;
bleeding from the esophagus, hemoptysis;
a pregnant cat choked, a full analysis of its health should be performed, an ultrasound should be performed;
lack of normalization of the pet’s health after removal of the foreign object.

Note! Often, several small fish bones may become stuck in the esophagus. A person will take out 1 of them, the other will remain inside. Therefore, it is better to make sure of its complete absence by conducting a complete diagnosis of the body.

If a bone is stuck in a kitten's throat.

This option is the most common. It is kittens who most often choke on bones. Inexperienced owners want to accustom their baby to adult food as early as possible. This leads to the fact that the kitten does not chew well the bones that are too heavy for him, and they get stuck.

If a bone is stuck in your kitten's throat, you should immediately contact a veterinarian.
The baby is unlikely to cope with this problem on his own. It is not recommended to remove the bone yourself. The kitten's mucous membrane is still very delicate and can be damaged even more. Tweet

What causes bones to get stuck in the throat?

There are several common reasons as a result of which the phraseological phrase “like a bone in the throat” turns into a real dangerous situation:

Prolonged hunger . If a cat has not received food for a long time, it can literally attack the food, swallowing large pieces without chewing. In this case, there is a high risk that the animal will choke.
Eating from someone else's bowl . Almost all mustachioed striped animals have a reputation for being very arrogant and unprincipled individuals who are not averse to eating from dog cups. Moreover, particularly shameless individuals may not even allow the owner to approach the bowl until they themselves “taste the dishes.” And if dogs can eat large bones without any problems, then cats may not be able to handle such food.
Eating a whole fish . Responsible and experienced cat owners know that these pets can only be given boiled fish, previously deboned. But often whole fish, raw, are included in the diet of domestic cats. Not only can such a “delicacy” be infected with helminths, but also sharp fish bones often dig into the delicate mucous membrane of the throat, getting stuck in it or penetrating further into the esophagus and fixing there.
Picking up street trash. This is a common problem for cats accustomed to free-ranging outside. Here they can eat any, including dangerous, objects that are not always edible.

How to keep your cat safe. The owner should monitor his pet more closely and avoid the presence of:

duck bones;
bones of large fish of fatty varieties: silver carp, pike, Siberian roach;
fish tail bones, heads, as well as gills and gill covers.

If, despite all the preventive measures, a bone still gets stuck in the cat’s throat, then the owner will definitely notice warning signs.

Is a foreign body really dangerous?

A foreign body entering the digestive tract can lead to the following health problems:

dehydration due to vomiting and the animal’s refusal to drink water;
pathologies of cardiac activity up to complete cardiac arrest due to penetration of a sharp object through the wall of the stomach into the pericardium;
violation of the integrity, numerous ruptures and damage to the mucous membrane throughout the gastrointestinal tract when a foreign body moves due to peristalsis;
ulcerative lesions of the stomach, small and large intestines;
necrotic processes due to prolonged presence of non-sterile objects in internal organs;
blockage, intussusception, intestinal obstruction;
perforation of the walls of internal organs with sharp objects;
peritonitis with a high mortality rate.

Veterinary specialists, understanding the danger of a pet swallowing an inedible object, strongly recommend that owners closely monitor their pets and have an idea of what clinical signs are typical for this situation.

False symptoms

If a cat has dyspnea (feeling of lack of air), it is recommended to examine its mucous membranes. With hypoxia, that is, lack of oxygen, it acquires a rich red tint or becomes bluish. With obvious symptoms of suffocation, the pet can quickly die if emergency assistance is not provided.

But in some situations, a prolonged, obsessive cough that causes gagging has nothing to do with foreign objects in the respiratory tract. These may be other conditions:

The cat swallowed fur - his behavior makes it seem like he is choking. A little later, you will notice how he regurgitates hairballs, as a result of which the signs of the disorder disappear.
“False suffocation” - experiencing severe hunger, the cat inhales air so forcefully that its larynx is pulled into the soft palate. In this state, it is advisable to give him food, drink or stroke his chin.

If anxiety does not disappear after such events, and the cat refuses food, then it needs urgent help.