My Story
Scooter
June 2009
Location: San Clemente, Calif.
Breed: Siamese cat
It was on Memorial Day when Scooter went from happily scampering around to suddenly foaming at the mouth and violently shaking her head. Margaret Stedt and her husband rushed her to the emergency clinic, where they gave her seizure medication and kept her overnight.
The following morning they took her to their veterinarian, who suggested they see a neurologist that same day. They did, and as they were prepping her for an MRI exam, a technician adjusting Scotter’s head and tongue encountered the culprit—a small sewing needle with some thread still attached to it. Scooter had ingested the needle two weeks prior after Margaret hemmed a pair of pants, but it happened unbeknownst to her and hadn’t done damage beyond the tongue until that particular day, when it somehow advanced through her throat and made direct contact with her brain.
Once diagnosed by the technician, Scooter was anesthetized in order to painlessly remove the needle. Post procedure, the veterinarian prescribed antibiotics for an abscess that had formed from the punctures. What initially the doctors suspected was the onset of epilepsy was a diagnosis much less grim. The seizures instantly subsided after removing the needle and Scooter has since fully recuperated.
“Scooter was literally centimeters away from dying from simply swallowing something that is in almost every home,” Margaret says. “It’s direct proof that anything can happen, even to an indoor cat that’s young and vibrant.”
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