A cat was rushed to the vet for life-saving surgery after eating 40 hairbands which had formed a massive lump in her tummy.
Bianca Oborne, 33, from Shepperton, Surrey, says she knew her four-year-old cat Isabelle liked hair ties but had no idea she had been eating them ‘for years’.
The office worker rushed Isabelle to get professional help in January after she stopped eating her food and a large lump appeared on her stomach.
She initially believed her cat had a hernia, but was ‘stunned’ to find the growth was a clump of 40 hairbands after an ultrasound and X-ray.
The cat had a three-hour operation to remove the foreign objects at Vets4Life last month and has now made a full recovery.
Bianca says the family now locks themselves away whenever they get a delivery after learning Isabelle is obsessed with ‘all sorts of elastic bands’.
The pet owner said: ‘We know she liked playing with hairbands but we never thought for one moment that she was eating them. There are a lot of things she likes to eat.
‘She is attracted to all sorts of elastic bands, and she is obsessed with the cellophane-like material clothes deliveries come wrapped in.
‘She gets very over excited and runs at the object of her desire with really wide eyes. We have taken to locking ourselves away in bedrooms to open deliveries.
‘We initially thought she might have a hernia when we saw the lump. When the vet told us it was dozens of hairbands she had swallowed, we were stunned.’
Bianca added that she is grateful the hair ties were found in time ‘as something like this could have taken her life’.
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She said: ‘She must have been gobbling them for a number of years judging by the amount removed.
‘My daughter and I now keep a very close eye on our hairbands, with one on our wrists and the rest locked away safely.
‘When my nieces come to the house, they also get checked for hairbands. Isabelle will not be getting her paws on another one.’
Vet Will Lever, who operated on Isabelle, said: ‘A foreign body in the gastrointestinal tract can be life-threatening, so we rushed Isabelle straight in for emergency surgery.
‘We opened the intestines and we were stunned to discover that Isabelle had eaten dozens of hairbands. We believe there were approximately 35 to 40.
‘We removed all of the hairbands and the area was flushed with sterile saline to prevent infection.
‘Isabelle woke well from her surgery and was soon up and about and eating again – albeit this time it was slightly more appropriate food.’
