Phantom fur sausage?

[alanc]

It has been a very worrying week. Last Tuesday evening, Tilly refused to eat and started to retch frequently, without bringing anything up except froth. So of to the vet with her first thing Wednesday morning. Vet couldn't find anything definitely wrong, but gave her an anti nausea injection. Tilly ate a bit Wednesday and Thursday (about half what she usually eats) and moped around all day, very lethargic. Thursday night she suddenly started retching again, sounding this time like she does when bringing up a fur sausage, but (unless she has hidden it very well) there was no sign of one. With her history of Pancreatitis, I get very worried when she behaves like this with no fur ball appearing. So off to the vets again on Friday morning. This time she had blood tests and an ultrasound scan done. Nothing. Having sat in the vets all day (I think she was sedated for the ultrasound scan), she suddenly cheered up in the late afternoon and decided it was time to turn on her charm for the vets. Started happily eating as though nothing had been wrong! So I went and fetched her home, where she clearly wanted to make up for lost dinners.
Odd thing is, she did not produce any pee or poo until Friday night, when she finally emptied her bladder and saturated at least 3kg of litter. No poo, though. She must have dumped a very large log in a neighbors garden this morning!
She is now playing, eating and sleeping as though nothing had been wrong at all.
Makes me wonder what was wrong. Did she have a fur sausage and manage to pass it through her gut? Did she have a phantom fur sausage and the sedation get her out of the vomiting cycle (I remember James Herriot mentioning something like that in one of his books)?

[Kay]

it does sound like a fur ball problem - and they do pass through sometimes, so I think you are probably right there - in fact it shows Tilly's digestive system is working well if having failed to bring it up it was processed on through, and it seems logical that she didn't want to eat until it was out of her stomach

I remember that bit in one of the James Herriot books, when by knocking a dog out which was continually being sick he gave the stomach a rest and time to settle, but I suspect in Tilly's case it was time that worked its usual magic, and perhaps being manipulated rather a lot to get the tests done

do you brush her regularly with a slicker type brush, to get rid of excess fur?

[alanc]

Hi Kay - I have a whole array of brushes and combs that I use on Tilly to keep her fur in order! She now has a bare tummy, so no knot problems there for a while, until her fur regrows.