A two-year-old cat was lucky to survive after swallowing 11 of his owner's hair bobbles.
Amy Richards, 29, and her partner Jamie Lamb, 28, have owned black and white moggy Nero since he was an eight-week-old kitten.
The couple, who live in Heaton, Newcastle, had no idea he was secretly stealing the hair ties from Amy's bedside table and swallowing them.
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Amy did not know where the bands were mysteriously disappearing to until she discovered one which Nero had vomited up. She became worried when he continued being sick and brought up a second hair tie.
They took him to Westway Vets’ 24-hour hospital on the West Road in Newcastle at the beginning of March. Vets performed an ultrasound scan which revealed more hair ties, all gathered in a clump in his stomach.
The elastic bands needed to be urgently removed in case they caused a potentially life-threatening obstruction.
Vet Lucy Carr, clinical director Caroline Scobie and veterinary nurse Tilly Gladstone pulled out the remaining hair ties using an endoscope with a grabber device on the end.
During the procedure, a tiny camera passed down into the pet's stomach, while under anaesthetic, and the endoscope was manoeuvred so the grabber device could get a hold of the bobbles.
Another nine hair ties were pulled out of his stomach during the procedure, which lasted one-and-a-half hours.
Lucy said: "We couldn’t quite believe that he had swallowed so many hair ties in total, but they just kept coming out.
"At Westway Vets, we have removed all sorts of things like socks, toys and even a rubber duck from dogs, but this is unusual with a cat.
"Hair ties are a common hazard but for a cat to eat so many is certainly out of the ordinary and really extreme. He has been very lucky because they could have caused an obstruction which could have been life-threatening.
"We had a 50-50 decision to make on after the scan showed them all in a clump. The endoscope is minimally invasive and using it meant we could avoid surgery when there is a greater risk of infection afterwards and a longer stay in hospital. It meant Nero was able to go home the same day and was absolutely fine."
Nero has now made a full recovery. Amy, who works as a marketing officer at the Wildlife Trust, and Jamie, a VFX artist, believe that Nero's curious personality led to him eating the hair ties.
Amy, who is also studying Animal Welfare and Management, said: "We’ve never seen him eat one of the hair ties but we can only assume he was helping himself when I left them on the bedside table.
"He is naughty and very curious, but it seems ridiculous that a cat would eat 11 hair ties.
"He was sick one day and a hair tie came up and I thought he had just eaten one of them, but it happened again two days later. It was a shock when we discovered he had eaten 11.
"I am so grateful for what the team at Westway were able to do for him. We were offered the opportunity of surgery but didn’t want to go down that route and the procedure he had meant a much quicker recovery.
"I really appreciate what they did for him and all hair ties are now locked away in a drawer out of his reach!"
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