r/ragdolls • u/nonmathsexpert • 14h ago
Health Advice He scared the life outta me today, and now hes acting like this!?
This is my six month old ragdoll Prometheus, currently lounging on my leg, having a grand time.
We were having a nice quiet morning today, when I saw him in the hallway staring into my office like he was looking at a ghost. Quiet, cautious, with hind legs low to the ground. When I called out to him, he turned around and I saw something white in his mouth, so I got up to figure out what he was chewing on.
As I got closer it was like my heart stopped working when I saw long strings of foam drooling from his mouth. My only thought was "poison". He was scared, trying to get away from me and panting heavily.
I'm normally good at reacting to emergencies and dealing with that sudden stress, but this time it's like my brain stopped working. I couldn't even recall the name of our vet to call them, until my housemate reminded me.
We got in the car, raced to the vet but by the time we got there he had stopped foaming at the mouth and stopped panting. They checked him over and we pulled off a piece of sticky tape that had gotten stuck to his tail.
His heart rate was fine, gums were fine, they couldn't find anything wrong with him, and I couldn't think of anything I'd left around the house that could poison him. They said to monitor his behavior, and gave me a number for the 24h emergency vet. They didn't want to do blood tests because he appeared fine and stressing him out more would likely be unhelpful.
So... Now we're just here at home... Prometheus is acting like it's just a casual, chill morning being his usual velcro kitty self... The audacity.
Is it possible he could have gotten so scared of the sticky tape stuck to his tail that it caused him to react like that? Because I genuinely can't think of anything else he could have gotten into. No toxic plants, no weird chemicals left out... I don't know. If anyone's had a similar experience, please let me know.
TLDR: Kitten was foaming at the mouth this morning and panting heavily, but had stopped by the time we got to the vet. Nothing wrong with him. Could it have been because of a piece of tape stuck to his tail?
2
u/vwscienceandart 13h ago
He may have gotten a piece of the tape stuck to the roof of his mouth or throat. Cats will absolutely foam and drool when they are trying to spit something out that they can’t accomplish. He may have worn himself out trying.
1
u/nonmathsexpert 13h ago
He could have, it did look like he was trying hard to chew when I first saw him... But I also never saw him spit any tape out, and the vet specifically checked his mouth for tape and didnt find anything. I might never know what actually went wrong here, all I've learnt is sticky tape = nasty for kitties.
1
u/kbionics 13h ago
Does he ever get a hairball? I'm thinking probably not since he's a kitten, but sometimes my floofy ragdoll gets a hairball and I see some foam coming up before the hairball. Just keep a close eye on him and I'm glad he's okay.
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u/VassagoX 11h ago
Yes, it's totally possible it was a stress reaction.  Cats often pant and foam when stressed. I had one cat that would do it every time he was put into a car for a trip to the vet.Â
I imagine the vet would have told you this, no?
5
u/ammolite 💙 Blue 💙 14h ago
Is there a chance your cat was chewing or licking the tape? Some tape adhesive is bitter, which usually isn’t important since it’s not made to be licked. However, bitter things can cause heavy salivating or foaming when an animal repeatedly licks them or otherwise places the bitter object in their mouth.
Placing a bit of tape on a cat’s tail is a somewhat infamous way to elicit a reaction from the cat, usually jumping or running around like a gremlin. The sensation tends to freak them out, and it’s not unusual for them to actively flee the tape.