Now that I have your attention . . . FBO stands for foreign butt objects. Yes, this post gets a little graphic (not literally) — fair warning.

Animals eat weird things, and what goes in must come out. Yesterday Simba had what looked like a long piece of mulch sticking out of his butt. Now, if you ever see yarn or floss or anything at all stringlike sticking out of your animals’ butt, do not try to pull it out; doing so can lead to serious internal damage, and possible surgery — or worse. I’m not kidding.

Although this obviously was something Simba ate outside, and it wasn’t stringlike at all, I still wasn’t about to pull it. Eventually I ended up with him on his side on the bathroom counter, scissors in hand. Like an extremely bad mommy, I still don’t have safety scissors, even after Gizmo’s encounter with the evil plastic grocery bag.

Simba was not at all happy with my messing around “down there”, but he tolerated it well (that is to say, I got off without any scratch or bite marks). Maybe he realized eventually that I was trying to help him. I cut the FBO off as close to his butt as possible, and he eventually got rid of the rest on his own. The things we do for our animals.

If you ever need to get up close and personal with an animal because they’ve got something nasty stuck to or sticking out of them, your best bet is to get them in a small enclosed room such as a bathroom. That way even if they get away from you, they’re not going far. Elevating them often helps calm them, too.

Technorati Tags: yarn, floss, scissors, safety scissors

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