Pets ate a fly

[chasely 0]

I recently moved home from college for the summer and I had some of my fly tying stuff out. Long story short the cats got into some of my partridge feathers and, long story short, I'm down a fly and I'm thinking that it ended up in the mouth of one of the cats.

 

Should I be worried about anything? It was still barbed at the time of dining.

 

Chase

[Harold Ray 0]

If an animal eats a fly the problem you have is the hook, unless the hook was attached to a leader or line. The hook can lodge anywhere and stay. If the hook was barbless, or the barb was crushed, it is possible it could pass through the tract. You have two options:

 

1. get the cat to eat a large meal of soft, canned food, wait overnight for it to have a BM and take it to an animal emergency clinic tomorrow for an x-ray. The problem with all of this is the hook can stick all the way throught the stomach or intestinal wall, and if it does that, its probably going to stay where it is.

 

2. the second option is to take the cat in tonight. Its your choice. If the hook is lodged, it would require a scope and/or surgery to get it out.

 

If there was a leader or line involved, that is more serious, and surgery will be needed to remove the material to prevent major digestive tract damage.

 

Ray

[chasely 0]

Thanks for the advice. Luckily, I found the missing fly.

[longears 0]

look inside of the cats mouth for the fly. then watch it closely for a few days. if it can't eat, or looks like it's having problems take it to the Vet to get an x-ray. If it's a pretty Dun cat , Shave the dubbing off before you bury it... I doubt very much if the hook will pass through it's system; really don't think it would matter if it was barbed or not. you might need surgery...(on the cat). then close the door to the room when you're done tying or keep the cats out.

[Snowmass Angler 0]

Ha! This is so funny! I've actually had my dog 'undress' three fully dressed atlantic salmon flies, some of my first actually. My girlfriend/fiance was pissed that I left them "out" (they were on the kitchen table).

I don't know how he managed not to cut his mouth on the 3/0 hooks!!!

[Harold Ray 0]

I have removed many hooks from dogs and cats and a few from people. Dogs occasionally get the hook caught in their mouths but most swallow them and they go straight to the stomach. I've been a able to get many with a gastroscope, but there have been a few that needed surgery.

 

You never know what's going to happen when dealing with animals, or where the hooks will end up. I've had quite a few pass them while others hooked the gut and stayed right there,

 

Ray

[madkasel 0]

I have a dog now and this scares me a lot. I'm being very careful with all my flies and my tying area.

[searsportshuffle 0]

i had a gold fish eat a size 24 midge once. (dont tell the wife) Someone please tell me I'm not the only one whos tried that.

[DoubleHaul 0]

Please be carefull about leaving rigged rods where cats can get them. A buddy's cat got impaled in the paw with a 2/0 tarpon fly while batting at it. We got it out OK but it was very traumatic for the cat (and owner).

[skyfireblaze 0]

Yeah, you've got to be really careful about leaving flies around the house.

 

I left a beadhead pheasant tail nymph (16 or 18 I believe) attached to some tippet on my desk. Well, my wife sees the cat choking on some fishing line and proceeds to try to pull the line out of the cats mouth. She didn't realize their was a hook on the end. We ended up spending several hours in an emergency vet clinic that night. Fortunately they were able to extract the hook, even though it was set so far down the throat.

 

It was by far the least fun I've had spending $600 on "fly fishing". Still, it ended up cheaper than having the hook removed surgically (~$2000) or having to tell my kids that we had to put the cat down because Dad left his fishing stuff out ...

[DHise 0]

I was on the river one day with a friend of mine and we hooked and pulled in a branch from the river. It had some flies and spawn sacks attached to it so my buddy took all the hooks and mono off the branch and threw the branch to the bank. Nothing new, we always pick up line and hooks from the river and threw them away later. Well, his dog saw the spawn sack and ate it. There was line coming out of her mouth and the spawn sack was nowhere to be seen. We rushed home and took her to the vet. It turned out that the treble hook was totally encompassed within the spawn sack so the vet had my buddy feed her a loaf of bread to see if she would poop it out; before surgery. She pooped it out the next day. It looked the same as it did when it went in except the color :bugeyes:

[wernstriumph 0]

i had a gold fish eat a size 24 midge once. (dont tell the wife) Someone please tell me I'm not the only one whos tried that.

Ha! Ha! I have a 6 foot long fishtank in my "man room" I have crayfish and goldfish in it most of the time and man do they get big with all that room. I have "tested" some of my flies in there and yes the goldfish have been hooked. Catch and release, eh?!. A friend of mine works at one of the NJ hatcheries and gave me a couple of brook trout fry a while back. I had them for a year or two and they got to be about 12" They were eating feeder goldfish and were nice and colorful. And yeah I caught them a couple of times too! Last spring I put a bunch of feeder fish in there and it was a bad batch (there was a parsite or disease or some thing) and both trout went belly up after 48 hours.

[Harold Ray 0]

Last spring I put a bunch of feeder fish in there and it was a bad batch (there was a parsite or disease or some thing) and both trout went belly up after 48 hours.

 

When you have nice fish like bass, sunfish or trout in your tanks, or any other fish you maintain for beauty and enjoyment, you really do have to use care in placing other fish, feeders or whatever, in with them. Sources of fish are not always clean and healthy, i.e.: they may be infected or parasitized. The introduced fish may have successfully adapted to the bacteria, viruses or parasites, but for fish whose systems and immune mechanism are not adapted to them, its usually sure and certain death.

 

I would love to have bass, sunfish or trout in my tanks here at the clinic. I've been thinking about doing that.

 

Ray

 

[Harold Ray 0]

SFB,

 

That is a great x-ray, and generally, with a hook, that's the way they always look. Just the hook size varies. Sorry for the unexpected expense, but the lesson here is: dogs and cats will eat anything. The most unusual things I have ever removed from animals stomachs were a once white, large, long sleeved man's shirt the college couple's Golden Retriever stole off the closeline, and three golfballs a friend's English Bulldog ate on the Ridgewood Golf Course here in Waco. Heck, I've taken out everything from nuts and bolts to rocks as big as my fist.

 

Ray

[skyfireblaze 0]

Since it ended well for us, it's something that I can look back on and laugh about. I know others are not as fortunate when their pets get into "mischief".

 

Since then, whenever my tying and/or fishing gear is out, the door is always closed (and sometimes locked)- no pets allowed.

 

While we were waiting at the clinic, a dog came in needing to have a Frisbee taken out of its stomach (or at least 2-3 plastic pieces that once resembled a Frisbee).