Cat needed emergency operation after swallowing 17 hair bobbles

Jem the cat, and his owner Pamela Hogg (Andrew Cawley / DC Thomson)

A CAT needed life saving surgery – after swallowing 17 hair bobbles.

Ginger tomcat Jem would have died without an emergency op to remove the hair bands.

Jem’s owner Pamela Hogg, 30, rushed him to see the vet, after he developed an upset stomach which just wasn’t clearing up.

On examination, vets at Westport Veterinary Clinic in Linlithgow, West Lothian, found a lump near his liver.

“It was a hard knobbly lump which felt like a liver tumour,” explains head vet Stuart McMorrow. “We all feared the worst.”

X-rays, however, showed a long twisting foreign body in Jem’s stomach.

Jem couldn’t eat and would have died without surgery (Andrew Cawley / DC Thomson)

“We didn’t know what it was,” says Stuart. “We were all taking bets – one person thought it was an iPad cable, though that didn’t make sense, how could he have eaten a big long thing like that?”

Forty-five minutes later – the hair bobbles were removed. “And they weren’t the little thing ones either, they were really quite thick,” says Stuart.

“Without surgery Jem would have died,”

Owner Pamela, of Bo’ness, said she was stunned when the vets phoned her to tell her what they had found. “I was absolutely horrified,” she said. “It’s not something you would ever think a cat would eat.

“And I thought I had them hidden away in a drawer but cats being cats, he’s found them. He must have taken them over a long time otherwise I would have noticed them going missing.”

Jem the cat (Andrew Cawley / DC Thomson)

The 30-year-old lab technician, who bought Jem and his sister Scout just under two years ago, had taken her pet to the vets after he became plagued with stomach problems. “He had been vomiting. I tried taking his food away but it didn’t make any difference.

Stuart, a former PDSA vet, adds: “It didn’t make sense that it was a tumour since Jem is a young cat.

“But I have never seen a cat do anything like that before, and I have a lot of experience and seen tons of weird things when I was working for the charity.

“Cats are usually very sensible – dogs are more likely to eat strange things.”

He said Jem had had a lucky escape – a drawstring or wire could have wrapped around his intestines and acted like a cheese wire.

And he warned against owners “twanging” bobbles or elastic bands across the room as a game for cats in case it encouraged them to eat them.

Pamela said: “I’m definitely making sure everything is tidied away now.”