Cat choking what to do urgently

Choking in cats develops when a foreign object enters the larynx or becomes lodged on the border between the entrance of the esophagus and the larynx. This is an emergency situation that requires pre-hospital care and obligatory consultation with a veterinarian, even if it seems to be all right.

A foreign body in the larynx. Is it worth swallowing a crust of bread?

The topic for this new article was prompted to me by yesterday's incident at the clinic. A man came in with a complaint of a fish bone stuck in his throat. He said he tried to do it himself at home: he ate and drank to push the bone through, but nothing helped, and the discomfort did not go away. That's how I ended up with it. Interfering object, of course, was removed (the case was not the most severe), but once again to tell how foreign objects get into the throat and what to do, will not be superfluous.

So, a foreign object in the larynx is any foreign object that happened to be in the larynx by accident. Usually they are pieces of food and objects that we use in everyday life. Less often it is insects. This problem is often faced by babies under 3-4 years of age. At this age, they are intensively exploring the world and use not only their hands but also their mouth. Although adults are not immune from getting foreign objects in the throat.

How does a foreign body get into the throat?

Here are a few factors that contribute to the jamming of various objects in the larynx:

• Parents' carelessness and leaving very young children with knowingly dangerous small objects;
• Choosing toys that do not match the age of the child – be sure to read the age rating on the box. 0+, 1+, 3+ – these labels are written for a reason;
• Older age – at this time, and vision is severely impaired, and the movements are no longer as fast, and the protective reflex of the upper airway is weakened;
• the consequences of improperly performed medical procedures, where objects and instruments used during medical procedures can get into the larynx (more common in dentistry and surgery);
• habit of holding needles or pins in the mouth – a careless breath or "sneeze" and the object slips in;
• Having crowns or removable dentures in the mouth that can be inadvertently swallowed;
• Talking and laughing while eating: It's not for nothing that our parents have told us since childhood, "When I eat, I'm deaf and dumb. This rule works!
• insects and even fish fry that get caught in the throat when breathing in or swallowing water while swimming;
• ingestion of leftover food from the stomach during vomiting.

Symptoms: how do you know if a cat has choked?

Grass for the cat is a means of clearing the stomach if hair has accumulated there. The animal purposely eats the plants to vomit later. Therefore, such vomiting is not considered a signal that the animal has choked. Most often the cause is a hard bone, large cartilage, splinters of plastic toys that the cat has chewed. Kitten chokes on milk or water. If a cat has a bone stuck in its throat, the symptoms are as follows:

• Anxiety and restlessness;
• Excessive salivation;
• frequent regurgitation;
• constant presence of the paw in the mouth, as if something is in his way;
• refusal of food and water;
• Strong tongue sticking out;
• hoarse or heavy breathing;
• bloody saliva if a foreign body is lodged in the esophagus.

First aid

A kitten who has choked on milk can be lightly tapped between the shoulder blades by tilting him slightly. If the cat choked on a bone from a fish, you can try to extract it yourself. Algorithm of action:

1. Wrap the cat in a thick blanket so that the paws are firmly secured.
2. Examine the pharynx with a flashlight.
3. With a needleless syringe inject some lean oil to make the foreign body more pliable for extraction.
4. Use tweezers to gently pull out the bone.

1. Kneel down, fixing the cat between your legs with its head away from you.
2. Sharp movements squeeze the sides 4-5 times, controlling that the impact on the ribs was not too strong, otherwise you can break the bones.
3. With a cough, cats cough up the foreign object.

How to make artificial respiration?

If the cat has swallowed a bone and is choking, you should immediately call a veterinary ambulance and start artificial respiration in this way:

1. Lay the animal on its side.
2. Sharp movements squeeze the chest 5-6 times toward the neck.
3. Exhale 1 p. into the cat's nose.
4. Continue sternum massage (80-120 ppm).
5. Alternate exhaling into the nose and massaging: 15 sec. massaging/10 times exhaling.

Veterinarians prohibit giving the cat laxatives, disinfecting the throat with alcohol, using force when opening the mouth, this leads to mucous burns or dislocation of the jaw.

How can you help a cat quickly?

The special structure of the cat's larynx increases its sensitivity, so a foreign object often provokes gagging spasms that can block breathing. After calling the vet, you should act without delay, calling for help from a member of the household. The cat should be wrapped securely in a blanket, sheet or towel, leaving only the head exposed. Its head should be slightly tilted back, in order to be able to look into the open mouth of the injured pet.

If the cat is choking on a fish bone, the lower jaw should be moved back and the beam of light should be directed inside. If the object (fish bone) is clearly visible, you should extract it with tweezers. A large bone can be broken in half with nail clippers and extracted piece by piece. It is highly discouraged to put your fingers in your pet's mouth, as he may reflexively bite them.

Sometimes a situation arises when a cat chokes on a bone, but visual inspection does not reveal it. The method described above will not work, so you need to act in another way. It is necessary to gently but extremely carefully strike the cat in the area between the shoulder blades, or to squeeze the cat's chest from the sides several times in a row. To do this, the cat should be positioned with the back of its head towards the owner, and its hind legs should be firmly fixed. Using your hands, sharply squeeze the chest several times in a row, thus forcing the cat to cough. A small amount of cooking oil can be poured down the cat's throat to lubricate the inside and make it easier to remove the bone.

Usually these measures are enough to get rid of the foreign object. But what should you do if the cat chokes on a bone and his tongue turns blue, but his breathing is not much worse? Take him to the clinic immediately for examination and removal of the bone. It is forbidden to push the object into the stomach, as there is a high chance of damaging the mucosa.

Only a veterinarian can determine the severity of the cat's condition and remove the foreign object. In conditions of extreme severity, an endoscopic or surgical method is used. In this case, general anesthesia is required.

If the foreign body can be removed:

• Wrap the cat in a towel, sit on the floor, and take the pet in your arms;
• open its mouth wide, pull out its tongue and remove the foreign body with tweezers or a finger wrapped in a bandage;
• If you find a piece of string sticking out of his mouth or a raindrop, do not try to remove it yourself, but take the pet to the veterinarian immediately;
• Take the injured cat to the vet to make sure it is okay.

If the cat tried to burp but the foreign body did not come out, you can help it in the following ways, depending on its position:

• If the cat is standing, you need to sit on the floor. Squeeze the cat's hind legs between your thighs so that the back of the cat's body is higher than the front. Press the cat's sides sharply, squeezing them by about a third, 4-5 times. The cat will cough, stick its tongue out, and may vomit – this will help clear the airways.
• If the cat falls on its side, lay it on its side and sit down next to you. The base of one palm pressed against the cat's chest where its ribs meet. The second palm pressed to the back. Press sharply, one-third of the way down, into the soft fossa 2-3 times, directing the palm of your hand towards the back and towards the head. The palm on the back should hold the injured animal in place. Open the cat's mouth and check if a foreign body has come out into the mouth. If not, repeat the expulsion technique several times.

If the first aid helped, go to the vet anyway. You'll need to see if there are any soft tissue injuries, ribs, and make sure the foreign body was alone.

It is important to closely monitor what the cat is playing with. If the cat has lost or had its teeth removed, you should consult a veterinarian about safe food and accessories.

What to do if there is no effect?

If the first aid measures taken do not help, the pet's swallowing reflex and breathing problems will persist. In this case, 2 options are likely:

What to do if getting the bone or other body out on your own has failed and the animal is losing consciousness from suffocation? In this case, you should try to extract the object stuck in the throat by any means. To do this, open the mouth of the pet as wide as possible and try to feel for the foreign body in the throat with your fingers. A flashlight or other illuminating device should be used to improve visibility. If the object is removed, a soft clean cloth should be used to gently remove any fluid that has accumulated in its mouth, and the pet's head should be turned on its side to prevent it from choking.

After removing the object, the animal should be resuscitated by performing artificial respiration. The sooner the actions described above can be carried out, the better the chances of bringing the cat back to life.

If a bone lodged in the throat can be removed on its own, a visit to the veterinarian should not be cancelled. The doctor will determine after an examination whether the foreign object has been completely removed. To clarify the diagnosis, the patient may be assigned an X-ray. In some cases, if the bone is lodged deep in the esophagus, the animal is assigned an emergency surgery under general anesthesia.

Read also: How long after castration a cat comes out of anesthesia, how does a castrated pet look and behave?

A cat chokes on itself – what to do?

If your cat chokes right in front of you – to save him from suffocation is quite within your power, you just need to know what to do in such cases. Here is a step by step plan of what to do if your cat chokes.

Step 1: Assess the situation

Step 2. Fix the cat

You should wrap the cat in a thick cloth, such as a blanket. This will protect you from sharp claws, and chaotic movements of the animal's paws will not distract you from the main thing.

Sometimes the animal does not resist your help, but not always, so it is better to be reassured.

Step 3: Try to pick up the object

Tilt its head slightly back and open its mouth. Now you can see what caused the disturbance. Remove the object with your fingers or tweezers. We have been able to retrieve with our fingers more than once, but this is not always a good solution. Take care to keep your fingers from biting!

Cat choked on a bone, what to do?

A cat choked on a bone, what to do in such cases, any owner of a pet should know. The main thing in such a situation – do not panic, and promptly provide help to the pet, otherwise it can simply die.

Trouble usually follows an animal if its diet contains food that contains hard or semi-solid parts, such as bones. Veterinarians do not recommend giving cats such 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 humans is to identify the symptoms that indicate that a kitten or adult animal has choked. To do this, one must look closely at the pet. If he or she has choked on a fish bone, for example, the following symptoms usually appear:

• The presence of a solid object in the pet's throat is indicated by the urge to vomit. If the bone is stuck deep, the cat's attempts to eliminate the bone by vomiting will increase, but they will not be successful.
• Usually in this condition, he can not swallow small pieces of food, drink water. A panicked cat cannot swallow its own saliva.
• There may not be signs of gagging, but severe vomiting. If its intensity is high from the beginning, it means that the pet really 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 the cat begins to shake, cramps, opens its mouth, and coughs. There may simply be a wavelike cough, which gives an indication of a malaise in the pet's respiratory system.

Therefore, a person should be able to distinguish this symptom from vomiting, which appears in the pet when a bone enters the throat.

If the cat is coughing a lot, it is necessary to call the veterinarian, as this means that the pet has an infectious lesion or stomach disease. Most often, such symptoms in the pet appear with a cold or gastritis.

How to help a pet with vomiting and choking

If the owner knows that the animal ate bones before the signs of trouble appeared, they are more likely to cause vomiting when they fail to pass in the pet's throat. Therefore, the person must act quickly.

• First, the choking cat is checked for adequate breathing. If she is breathing quite freely, then the foreign body is not deep. A person can try to get it out with a pair of tweezers. It will not be easy for one owner to do this alone, a helper will be needed, as the animal, panicking for fear of suffocation, will scratch, twist, run away from people.

Therefore, the helper should hold the pet firmly and bring it close to a bright light source. The pet owner unclenches 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. It is necessary to pour some vegetable oil into the mouth. It will force the bone into the cat's stomach and help it get its respiratory system in order.
• Owners who are experienced in handling cats recommend that in such situations you put the pet's head down (as mothers do with their children when a child chokes) and then hit the cat's chest hard or slap it on the back. This will help shake the bone out of the throat.
• You can try artificially inducing vomiting. Then the cat's throat will clench and push the bone out. Act quickly, but do not use force, because it will cause stress to the cat.

Kittens often choke because of the rapidity of eating food. If this happens, the baby is taken in your arms and warm water is poured into its mouth. You can easily pat the pet on the back with the palm of your hand.

If the owner did not notice in time that the cat is choking, and the pet's tongue turns blue, it is necessary to take it to the veterinarian or call a specialist at home immediately.

Do not give your pet vodka or alcohol or laxatives. Sometimes surgery may be necessary.

How to save a choking cat

Signs that it has actually happened: inability to breathe; increased coughing; drooling or gagging; rubbing the mouth with paws.

Samson helps a lion get a chicken bone

Our cat once brought kittens, they eventually grew older and it was time for her to teach them to eat. Just at home we were cutting meat, and the kittens were specially cut into small pieces for the kittens, and a larger piece for the cat. Apparently, she decided to leave her meat for them, and the kitten got greedy and swallowed a big piece whole and choked. At first they noticed that he staggered strangely. There were other kittens nearby, we first thought that it was him playing so, because the little kittens are clumsy. But he fell down. Then there was no doubt that he choked and we quickly opened his mouth and saw a piece of this unfortunate meat in his throat. It was just luck that my father always had his toolbox at home, and we found a pair of tweezers in it. We got the meat right away. But the kitten's eyes were already glassy, and he went limp. We covered his face with gauze and began artificial respiration, we had to breathe a little, as his lungs were small.
In a word, the kitten grew big and handsome) However he paused for half an hour after the rescue.

They dragged one cat to me, saying that he was drooling and gagging. Opened his mouth, looked, saw that sticking out some small toothpick or something, I thought a small object, to pull out quickly will work, did not drug the animal, only tweezers grabbed, tried to pull out and it snapped and stayed, I tried the second time, the same thing, on the third attempt to pull out a sewing needle, already rejoiced, I looked and the needle thread is pulled out, began to pull slowly, pulled out well 40 cm somewhere, further it does not go, and the cat is already all on the alert, began to break out, scratching and making strong gulping movements, and here I am, one hand on the cat, the other hand holding the needle and thread, the cat is trying to swallow everything back and raking his paws back into his mouth, I called the assistant, quickly dialed a minimum dose of anesthesia, the cat was weakened, even for a minute just covered))) when she completely disconnected, I calmly pulled out another 30-40 cm of thread and happy ending, even cut it did not have to, the hostess reacted in time and brought cat. There have been cases where the owners delayed to the last minute, did not agree to the operation, the animals on the 5th-7th day begin necrotic changes due to the foreign body. A foreign body and the end.

Lora is a cat with bad luck.

Beautiful purr, opera diva – when Laura came into our care, we were honestly sure she would go home very quickly. But. It hasn't happened until now.

Laura was looking for her from the orphanage, looked out for those at the show in Moscow, stayed in town to make it easier for her people to get to her. But for now she is still a nobody.

We know, we are sure, it is temporary. Cheer up, Laura, happiness is yet to come! It will be, it will be, it will be. We only have to wait.

Laura is about 3 years old. She is healthy, vaccinated, neutered and chipped. She is neat and clean – she uses the litter box without any problems. She knows her litter box perfectly. With other cats are friendly, with dogs can live.

Call! And let Lora be lucky to be seen by you
+79265771085
+79779912508
Moscow

Identifying symptoms of a cat choking

Be aware of the existence of symptoms only similar to choking. These include increased breathing, in which muscles throughout the body work and the cat itself makes whistling sounds when exhaling. Such body movements and sounds can seriously frighten the owner. [3] X Information source Caroline Davis, Essential Cat, p. 161, (2005), ISBN 0-7621-0496-1 Cats can easily confuse the owner, as it is not uncommon for them to start coughing up clumps of hair or grass they have eaten. In fact, cat owners very often confuse normal regurgitation, which is perfectly normal for their pets, with choking. [4] X Information source Andrew Gardiner, A-Z of Cat Health and First Aid, p. 62, (2002), ISBN 0-285-63638-3

Assess the situation to see if the cat may have choked. Ask yourself, "What was the cat just doing?" If she was sleeping or wandering quietly around the room and then suddenly started making choking sounds, it's unlikely she choked. She didn't take anything in her mouth, so she couldn't have anything lodged in her throat.

First Aid

If the cat has choked, act immediately. Cats have a very sensitive larynx. If the larynx begins to spasm, the airway can become completely blocked and complete suffocation will occur. In this situation, you will not have time to wait for veterinary assistance. Even so, it is helpful to call the vet (if possible) for a phone consultation and to alert them of your imminent arrival.

Securely wrap the animal in a thick material, such as a towel. Leave only the head sticking out. This way you can immobilize the cat and reduce its resistance. [4] X Source of information Andrew Gardiner, A-Z of Cat Health and First Aid, p. 62, (2002), ISBN 0-285-63638-3 [7] X Source Caroline Davis, Essential Cat., p. 161, (2005), ISBN 0-7621-0496-1

• Sit with the cat on the floor. Position the animal with its muzzle facing away from you.
• Lift the cat's hindquarters and pinch them between your knees.
• Place your palms on the sides of the cat's rib cage and squeeze it firmly by about a third of its volume. Do not apply excessive force or you may break the ribs. Squeeze the rib cage with quick jerks. [8] X
• Your task is to make the cat cough. Squeeze her chest 4-5 times. This should be enough to induce a cough that pushes the foreign body out.