Poor Catastrophe!

My kitty is sick. :(

As I mentioned earlier, she's been throwing up pretty regularly since yesterday morning (when I stepped in the first puddle of cold cat puke). I was a little concerned when I saw foreign objects in it; specifically, trash she'd fished out of the garbage can and hair ties she'd stolen from me. I had to work yesterday afternoon, and Matt's roommate said she'd continued throwing up.

By this afternoon, she was dry heaving and wouldn't drink or eat anything. She was also pretty lethargic. I called Matt to let him know after I headed out to my volunteer training, and he took her to the emergency vet as soon as he got home. She apparently did well there, purring and flirting with the vet techs. They took an x-ray, and there it was: a blockage in her intestine. Matt said the vet was optimistic since we brought her in so quickly and she's pretty young (eight months old), so it's unlikely she'll have scary complications like perforations or sepsis.

They still have to perform surgery on her to fish whatever it is that's causing the blockage out, though, and there are always risks with surgery. Even when the animal in question is in otherwise good health. They're giving her fluids right now (she's a little dehydrated from all the barfing), and plan on starting the surgery in about thirty minutes from now. They'll be calling Matt when the surgery starts and when it ends. If it goes okay, we'll be picking her up tomorrow morning and taking her to the regular vet to stay for the weekend while she recovers.

Needless to say, I am worried sick about this, and I am afraid this is all my fault. I knew that she liked to play with and shred elastic hair ties, but I didn't think she was actually eating them because I kept finding little elastic carcasses all over the house. I thought she just liked to chew on them and break them, and now I feel like the biggest idiot on the planet for not having kept better track of them or done a better job keeping them out of her reach. On the upside, if that IS what's causing the blockage, at least it won't be sharp (making a perforation and subsequent sepsis much less likely).

Cataclysm, the other cat, is doing okay. He looked pretty confused when Matt came home without his sister, though, and I'm concerned he'll get stressed out without her. Hopefully, she'll be fine and will be able to come home Monday.

I intend on worrying myself sick until then. Pass the antacids.