$500 in vet bills and a very emotional weekend later...

[Caribou]

I have learned this lesson: Don't leave scraps of thread on the floor if you have a cat!
My poor cat swallowed a piece of thread and it wrapped around her tongue, with the other end going into her small intestines. When my cat was throwing up constantly, I rushed her to the vet who didn't see the thread, but told me to wait it out and take my kitty to the emergency hospital if she doesn't get better. When she was still throwing up and acting listless, I took her to the hospital and the vet on duty saw the thread. He was able to cut out what was in her mouth, but warned me that she would need surgery if her body couldn't digest the thread. The surgery would cost at least $2000. Needless to say, I was extremely upset!

Fortunately the thread was digested, and she's not showing any signs the vet told me to look for and she's back to her overly hyperactive self. The vet told me that we were lucky that I took her to the hospital or things could've gotten really serious.

So, learn from my mistake: If your pet roams around where you do your crafting, be sure to clean up after yourself. And if your pet starts to act like it's sick, don't wait to take it to the vet! You might also want to mention that you sew at home, and that might help the vet catch it.

Strings is nasty business when they go places where they don't belong!

[mserocks]

You're so lucky that the kitty is okay - I'm very, very glad of that. I had a kitty as a child that ate and entire SPOOL of thread... Screech didn't make it.

anyway, yay kitty.

[junquette]

I'm so glad your kitty is okay. I also lost mine to a sewing mishap. She loved to sit on my lap while I did my hand sewing and I had no idea she ate the thread and needle both. it was very wierd that i couldn't find it and kept warning everyone that I lost a needle and thread to watch for it. It ended up causing her so much pain and surgery couldn't be guaranteed that it would help her at all.Iit was the toughest thing I've ever faced so thank you for being brave enough to post this and warn of pets and crafting together. I don't think I could have posted this when it happened to me. on a happier note ten years laterI have another kitty and he only eats shoes! Especially my favourite boots!

[jillianb]

Oh, wow.  I'm kind of glad you posted this because I would never have thought about this as being a problem and I have a kitty.  Granted she prefers to try to eat fuzz off the floor rather than thread, but still . . . I'll have to make extra sure I have no thread lying about she can get to.

[PinkyK]

This is a good warning for me I'm brining home a new puppy next week so now I know to be more cautious with my thread!

I'm glad your kitty is doing much better.

[katiad]

My cat has twice eaten thin ribbons, and I'm terribly glad nothing horrible happened because of it. I've been rather careful to watch out for things like that - but it's a good reminder. Should find a better way to stow my threads and such, especially with a new kitty in the house...

Glad to see your kitty is doing okay! I'd be absolutely heartbroken if I lost mine to anything that I could blame on myself like that. *shudder*

[Tinytink84]

My dog had an "incident" somewhat similar to this a while back, although it wasnt craft related.

He used to chew on pop bottles, and every once in a while he would eat some of the plastic.  Well, he also liked to eat underwear (I know it sounds gross, but I guess a lot of dogs do it because they like that it smells like us).  Well, one day he decided to eat both a bottle and a pair of underwear... well, the plastic got wrapped up in the underware and got stuck in his intestines.  Long story short, he got really sick and had to have 1.5 feet of intestines removed.  He survived that and lived for a few more years, but then he got cancer and died.

It was really scary when he had to have the surgery.  We weren't sure for a while if he would make it.

But anyway, Im really glad your kitty made it.

[jloveg]

wow  I  never  thought  about  threads I  always  worry about the  pesky  dropped  needles  poking them.....  no  cats  but a  lab and  chauhauhau (sp)  would  really  be  lost  without  either of them....   

[Ginamonster]

I once found a needle and thread...in the catbox. I'll never forget, and am more careful now. My girl got lucky!!

[FauxChina]

I'm glad your kitty is ok. 

The purse I've been hand sewing nearly killed my kitten the other night, I put my needle away, but I left the spool of thread on the coffee table under the purse, but Lucky jumped up and got the thread.  I was in a dead sleep (I could sleep through a train driving through my apartment) but I woke up cause I heard something and when I turned on the light he was playing with the thread spool, and when I went to take it from him, thread was coming out of his mouth, I pulled very slowly and carefully about 5 or 6 feet of thread out of his mouth with probably another foot of thread that was knotted up at the end.  It could have been disastrous if I hadn't woken up, so until I can get a sewing box, my sewing stuff is kept in a drawer