Naughty kitty

pixiesis

Cathlete
So my little darling kitty Delilah (she's in my avatar) has been doing a bad thing. She's been licking the paint on one of the windowsills. We've saw it happen for the first time last week and tried to stop her. This morning she was at it again and then vomited up paint chips. Now the window is shut and she can't get at it anymore.

So I went and got a little kit to test the area for lead. It's an older house and there were several layers of paint. The older layers (the area where she was licking) did test positive for lead. :(

So she was at the vet all day. They gave her a laxative that I have to continue for a bit. Hopefully between her vomiting and the laxative we will clear out any lead that she ingested and it won't be a problem. But now I have to monitor her for signs of lead poisoning which could take weeks/months to show up. I'm freaked out for the poor baby and a bit worried about my other two (but I've never seen them licking any paint). I'm so happy that there is a treatment if she does develop lead poisoning but I'm scared to see her suffer if it does happen.

Just wondered if anyone else has ever dealt with this kind of thing. The vet said this happens more often with dogs than cats. She does like to fetch so we've often said that she's kind of a doggie-kitty.

Thanks in advance for any info/advice!

Amy
 
cats can get into the strangest things! my cat ate a foot long dental floss. she had to be xrayed then pulled out. a few days later she acted sick and vet said she had high kidney level from eating garbage (like my dental floss.) shes ok now but i have had to child proof my apartment. all the trash cans r now covered.so, pay attention to how she acts-if she seems ill after licking the paint.

laura
 
For some reason, lead paint must taste good (I've heard of kids eating it).
I hope Delilah didn't get enough to do her any harm, and that the vomiting and laxative got it all out of her.

To prevent her licking in the future, could you repaint the sills? How about spraying with bitter apple, which is supposed to taste really bad to animals?
 
Hope your kitty is ok! My cat licks plastic all of the time, they are strange little creatures.

That bitter apple spray actually does work.
 

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