Animal shelters in South Carolina are warning pet owners to keep an eye on the cat after one recently rescued cat died after eating 38 hair ties.
Nicknamed Juliette by shelter workers, the cat was brought in after her owner left her home in mid-November and abandoned her outside with two other cats.
As soon as she was brought in, it became clear that something was wrong.
“She hadn’t eaten, so they began to monitor her, took x-rays, and discovered that she had an unusual foreign body.
“It was wild and everyone was trying to guess what it was,” she says. I’ve heard of it, cats start eating it and it gets wrapped around their intestines.”
Their veterinarian, Dr. Lee Jamison, manipulated and pulled a “seemingly endless bundle of threads” from a small animal around Christmas time.
Hyman says he couldn’t believe it. He said he saw dogs eating corn cobs and aluminum foil “especially around Thanksgiving and Fourth of July.” But the hair tie was “certainly a first.”
They “really thought” the cat would make it because the hair knots were all in her stomach, she says. and died of liver failure.
In a Facebook post announcing the cat’s death, the Charleston Animal Society said, “Our professional veterinarians and lifesaving teams perform what we consider miracles every day. Unfortunately, with the best of caution.” not all animals make it. “Juliet, loved and unaffected in her last days, succumbed to this tragic accident. We are all heartbroken. ”
Hyman echoed those feelings, telling TODAY.com that he’s grateful that the cat “knew love” in his final days.
“She was loved and cared for, and that’s what I have to focus on,” she says.
Hyman hopes Juliet’s tragic story spreads two messages.
“Abandoning animals is one of the worst things to do in the beginning,” she says. “Second, if you have pets at home, be aware of what they can consume.”
She suggests keeping hair ties and cords out of the reach of cats and “just like children” watching them more closely to keep them out of trouble.
This article originally appeared on TODAY.com.
