You consider yourself a good pet parent, right? You feed your fur babies well, make sure they’re safe, and even schedule yourself around what they need. So, when you miss something, even something small, that hurts them, you can’t help but blame yourself.
If you know what I’m talking about, then you’ll understand how I’m feeling right now.
I’m always so vigilant about not leaving things out that Maggie could get into. I keep knives off the counter, plants up where she can’t get to them. You get what I mean.
So, yesterday’s events caught me completely by surprise.
Long story, short…I left a rubber band on the counter. It’s not something I would ordinarily do, even though I would never have believed Maggie would care about it anyway. My friend asked me what she was chewing on. As soon as she knew I was paying attention and before I could react…yep, she swallowed it.
My adorable little Muffin…who never does anything wrong…who likes to jump in the clothes dryer while I’m folding laundry…who plays in the sheets while I’m making the bed…swallowed that darn rubber band.
Now, keep in mind, even though I consider myself a really good pet parent, I had no idea what to do. I was actually expecting Maggie to vomit it up, but that didn’t happen. Then I assumed she’d just poop it out.
Thankfully, I have, without question, the world’s greatest vet. I emailed her on a Saturday night to find out if I should be concerned and she responded very quickly. My options were to take her to the emergency animal hospital to induce vomiting or wait it out and see if she passes it. The problem with waiting is that it could become an obstruction. It may take a week or so and I’d have to watch her closely. If she stops eating and starts vomiting then it became an obstruction.
Well, I’m waiting. I didn’t want to traumatize her unnecessarily. Looking back now I wish I had taken her in to induce vomiting, but it’s too late now.
So, why am I telling you this?
I’m writing this post and telling you about my mistakes in an effort to help someone else to not make them too. We often assume that our pets will just poop out whatever they swallow, but that’s not guaranteed. We try to save money by taking the “wait and see” approach. The problem with that is if it does become an obstruction, not only will it be a dangerous and traumatic experience for our babies, but it will be a whole lot more expensive to handle.
I guess the moral of this story would be to keep small objects out of your pet’s reach. Even if they’ve never done anything like that before, like Maggie, they can surprise you one day. We have to be as vigilant with our pets as we would with a human toddler. Because, if you think about it, no matter how old they are, aren’t they just toddlers with fur and four legs?
Let’s keep our babies safe!
https://chancesdreamrescue.org/donation
