# A SAND BURR almost killed my cat!



## Jay27 (Jan 11, 2010)

Long story, but we came VERY close to putting this cat down! Her problem was SOOOO SIMPLE I am horrified to think we only discovered it by chance.

One of our barn cats (El Gato or Gato, for short) is currently recovering in the basement after a scary and surprising episode. El Gato is always waiting for me on the milk stand, morning and night. She meows loudly and PLUNGES her face into the bowl as soon as I put a little milk in it. One evening, she was there, but didn't drink the milk... hmmm... the next morning, same deal... by evening, you could tell she hadn't been grooming herself, was losing body condition and was drooling. Our first guess... oh my, the cat is rabid! ... hmm... she's been vaccinated and seems to have all her motor skills. It's Saturday, the vet is closed, not to mention that barn cats don't get a lot of money spent on them at our house (they get fixed, vaccinated against rabies, regular deworming and 'other' vaccinations every couple years)... we looked in her mouth, checked for wounds, gave her some antibiotics and figured we'd wait and see. The next morning, Gato is drooling more, not all that happy and has a necrotic stink to her breath. We look her over again... she is NOT happy and gets us a few times with her claws trying to get away. I feel her jaw since she is grinding it... maybe it is broken? What do you do about that other than cough up $800+. We bring her into the basement, more antibiotics, go over to a friend's house to watch the game... one of the friends is a vet tech. Vet tech friend suggests putting her on pain meds, if she starts eating, she might recover. We happen to have unused pain meds from one of the semi-feral roaming cats getting fixed (if they show up and I can catch them, they get fixed! No more kittahs!). At this point, El Gato is SICK of us shoving stuff in her mouth. I stop at the vet and get a pill popper, previously I had been suspending the antibiotics in water and shooting them down her throat... wasn't working so good. So, we restrain this cat and pop the pain pill down her throat with the pill popper. I was petting the cat trying to decide when we should put her down... I could REALLY smell the necrotic stink now... I notice she is really mouthing now... I see a black chunk in her mouth... uh-oh... what is THAT?! A tooth, a chunk of flesh?! I get the hubby and we wrap the cat in a Carhartt coat to prevent clawing... we pry her mouth open and fish out the chunk with the pill popper... it was stuck to her tongue and smells HORRIBLE... HOLY CRAP, it is a SAND BURR (partially encased in mystery yuck... but sharp spines are still sticking out)! The best we can figure, it was stuck to the back of her throat because we never saw it and must have opened her mouth a dozen times. Shoving the pill popper back there probably dislodged it. El Gato is SUPER ticked now and drooling A LOT and the drool is a bit bloody. We decide if she is not improving in a few hours, we will put her down. 4 hours later, we return to the basement... El Gato drank all her (raw) milk. We bring half a can of wet food down and she eats it ALL! Since she lost a fair amount of condition in the 4 or 5 days without eating, we are offering multiple small meals a day. She is super psycho happy to see us whenever we go down there now. She will stay down there a bit longer. I am going to continue antibiotics, probiotics and pain meds for a few more days. Probably deworm her again before letting her back outside since I don't think she should have lost condition as fast as she did.

So that's my story... very scary! Who would have thought a little sand burr could almost kill my cat, but another day without food and she probably would have gone into system failure (Vet tech friend tells me cat's develop some kind of liver issue if they go without food and water too long).


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## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

That is some story! Poor kitty...thank goodness you found it and were able to help her out. Good job!!


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## Ravenlost (Jul 20, 2004)

Wow...sure glad you found it!


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## cathleenc (Aug 16, 2007)

that is a lucky kitty cat!

and good for you and dh for sticking with the problem long enough!


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## DamnearaFarm (Sep 27, 2007)

Lucky kitty!
When we were living in NM, one of our cats apparently tried to eat one (they didn't go outside, so it must have come off our clothes) and got it stuck between her bottom two teeth in front. 
We had no idea what was going on- she was drooling and pawing at her chin- until I wrapped her in a towel and checked it out.


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## Jackie (Jun 20, 2008)

That's crazy! Glad you caught it.When I was a kid I saw my cat pawing at her mouth and freaking out. I looked in her mouth and she somehow had a safety pin stuck in there and the pin was right through her tongue. yikes! She of course clawed my hand to pieces as I tried to get it out.


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## SageLady (Jun 10, 2008)

So glad you found it! Poor kitty! You did good!


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## nappy (Aug 17, 2003)

Be vigilant for thread or dental floss which can be chewed and swallowed by your pet or even a child. DD's cat had a stringy thing wrapped around the very back of its tongue. The vet was looking in the cat's mouth for an abcessed tooth as it was drooling/losing weight and found the problem.


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## barnyardgal (Sep 21, 2009)

wow..how sad..glad your kitty is gonna be ok....would had never thought a sand burr would cause that...although i don't know what a sand burr is as i guess we don't have them in Mo.


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## Guest (Sep 29, 2010)

Jay27 said:


> (Vet tech friend tells me cat's develop some kind of liver issue if they go without food and water too long).


That is correct. After only a few days of not eating, cats become at risk of developing hepatic lipidosis, which condition can rapidly deteriorate and the cat WILL likely die without veterinarian intervention, and may die even _with_ veterinary treatment.


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## Guest (Sep 29, 2010)

barnyardgal said:


> i don't know what a sand burr is


Thorny seeds on certain species of grass. Very painful if they get stuck in your skin, ESPECIALLY if you step on them barefoot (ask me how I know haha).


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## Shygal (May 26, 2003)

ladycat said:


> That is correct. After only a few days of not eating, cats become at risk of developing hepatic lipidosis, which condition can rapidly deteriorate and the cat WILL likely die without veterinarian intervention, and may die even _with_ veterinary treatment.


Thats what my Salem had


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